Journey of the Noble Dragons
by the gaming zombie writer
Summary: sequel to Dragon's Den Dream. Spike chose to accept the offer from the noble dragons and leave his home so that he may become stronger. unfortunately his friends don't quite see it that way and are willing to go to Tartarus and back to retrieve him; worse still, his new dragon friends would do the same to make sure he gets home. One thing is certain, this is gonna be a bumpy ride.
1. the deal is sealed

Spike let out a small sigh as he stared down into his punch glass, swirling the contents around.

It had been about two weeks since he had gotten that contract from his dream and Queen Chrysalis had made another futile attack on Equestria that yet again ended in failure. Where was he while the elements of harmony were saving the day? Hanging back like a pitiful sidekick, letting the **Real** heros do all the work like he always did.

Taking a quick swig of the sugary drink clutched in his claw, Spike stared out at the crowd of ponies talking amongst one another excitedly. Why wouldn't they be? The power of friendship had triumphed once again.

Spike wasn't jealous of his friends, in fact he was happy that they had succeeded and that they were beloved throughout equestria. It's just that, he wished he could be alongside them, as a fellow hero rather than just an assistant.

After all that's all anypony ever saw him as: not Spike, the reformer of the changelings; not Spike, the ambassador to the dragonlands; he was just Spike, the assistant to princess Twilight Sparkle; Spike, the close friend of the elements of harmony.

It didn't matter what he did or who he helped, it would always just be second best when compared to the accomplishments of Twilight and her friends. Doomed to spend his days living in their shadows.

"Spike, ya alright?" a country voice asked, breaking spike out of his deep thoughts

"Hmm?" the dragon in question asked. As he looked up from his drink he saw that standing there was Applejack, looking at him with a concerned expression.

"I'm fine, why do you ask?" said the dragon in a passive tone

"Cuz you've been starin at that punch fer quite awhile now." Applejack replied

"I'm okay, I'm just thinking." Spike said,

but that only prompted Applejack to probe further. "Thinkin? Bout what?"

"Stuff and things" he really didn't want to tell her the truth. The last thing he needed was a therapy session from Twilight or, Celestia forbid, the discovery of the contract he had received.

But Applejack refused to let up "listen partner, ifin there's somethin personal ya need to talk about ya know ya can come to me or the rest of the girls? Right?"

Spike waved her off "I know I know. Honestly though you've got nothing to worry about, I'm okay, I'm just thinking."

Applejack just shrugged and said "alright then, ah jus came to tell ya that Rainbow Dash wants to play truth or dare, care to join in?"

"Sure" Spike said, placing down his punch glass.

However as the two walked over, Applejack just couldn't shake the feeling that her dear dragon buddy was hiding something from her, something really, really big. And by Celestia she was going to get it out of him one way or another.

Truth or dare went well for the most part, with some crazy dares involving shoving things up your nose that most definitely weren't supposed to be there and even crazier truths, who knew big mac liked to play with dolls? Once Rainbow Dash completed a dare involving balancing a cup of juice on her head and a tightrope courtesy of our favorite party pony, she gave the bottle a good spin and it came to rest on Spike.

"Alright Spike, truth or dare?" asked the Wonderbolt

"Truth" said the dragon with a cocky smile.

'Gotcha' thought Dash.

Halfway through the game, Rainbow Dash had come up with a crazy plan to get Spike to tell her what had been bugging him. Twilight and the others were getting pretty worried about him, more than once they caught him staring blankly off into space in private but he just claimed it was nothing; even when he was helping Rarity, the little guy wasn't fully there or during their training session when he nearly crashed into a tree because he was spacing out. She hoped that the next question would get him to spill, at least a little.

"What are you hiding from us?"

The change in tone was almost immediate, Spike's cocky smile morphed into a frown. He began to sweat slightly, eyes darting back and forth, the dragon struggling to think of a response. Until finally Spike wordlessly got up, and walked away.

"Oh no, oh buck." said Rainbow Dash, chasing after him. It was pretty obvious she made the wrong call with that one 'stupid, stupid, stupid! If he won't tell us in private, why would he tell me in a truth or dare contest?' mentally beating herself up

Spike had already exited the party through the double doors that led out of the ballroom and was storming down the hallways to his room. Rainbow Dash quickly managed to catch up to him with her wing strength, but before she could get so much as a single word out Spike said "that was pretty low Rainbow Dash, even for you." not even caring to look at the blue pegasi

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Rainbow Dash defensively

"Oh please don't act so innocent" Spike snapped back "you and the girls love keeping secrets, but you all can't stand it when one's kept from you, can you?"

"Spike I was only trying to help" pleaded the athlete.

"Help? You call that help? Trying to expose a very personal secret of mine in front of all your friends? Oh yeah that's helpful!" Spike shouted

"Spike, please. I'm sorry, but we're all seriously worried about you. You've been acting like a total weirdo for the past two weeks! Something's going on and I just wanna know what's up!" Dash prattled out.

Had it really been that obvious? He was thinking alot about the whole contract, his origins, and the vlemm enclave sure. Why wouldn't he be thinking alot about it? It was a big and important decision he had to make. But staring off into space all the time in deep thought would be a bit off putting for observers, especially his closest friends who cared deeply about him.

Spike took in a few deep breaths to calm himself down, letting his rage die down, before looking at Rainbow Dash "I've just….I've just had a lot on my mind lately Rainbow Dash, about you guys and where we stand. But it's nothing, really. I've just been thinking, that's it."

"But Spike-" Rainbow Dash protested

"Dash do you trust me?" Asked Spike

"Well yeah but-"

"Do. You. Trust. Me?" repeated Spike.

Rainbow Dash stared at her dragon friend. She knew that Spike was a loyal and trustworthy friend; even rivaling her, the element of loyalty. But sometimes he wasn't exactly privy to letting them in onto his personal feelings. Then again this was Spike, if there was really something big troubling him then he would tell them.

"Okay Spike, I trust you."

"Good. Then trust me when I say that I can handle the stuff I'm going through, I'll sort it all out"

Rainbow dash smiled and gave the drake a playful noogie "alright squirt. Your life is your business. Just don't go skipping out on us like last time."

"I won't, anyways I think I'm gonna call it a night. We've had a crazy day" Spike said, opening the door to his bedroom.

"Crazy? Please, we pretty much do this hero thing on a daily basis, it's almost getting boring; almost." rainbow dash said letting out a chuckle.

The two waved goodbye to each other and Spike shut the door; placing his ear fin to it, he waited until the sound of Rainbow Dash's wing flaps died down. Then looked through the keyhole for good measure.

Nopony was there. Good.

The baby dragon's smile gave way to a frown. "She's gonna hate me for lying to her" he said, pulling the scroll out of it's hiding place.

A few days after he had received the contract, Starlight had decided to do some snooping around his room when she noticed his strange behavior; thankfully, he had caught her in the act before she could find anything. Ever since then he had been changing the hiding spot every night to ensure that nopony else came across it.

Laying it down on his desk in front of him, Spike looked it over.

He was already beginning to lean towards accepting their offer, but the attack by Chrysalis only solidified his decision. He had to become stronger, he needed to become stronger. He was tired of being a sidekick, tired of being second place, tired of being on the edge of the spotlight instead of sharing it with the others. He wanted to become a hero in his own right, show everypony that he could do it just like his friends could.

But it wasn't just for him, it was for them too. True they had handled themselves so far, but what if Chrysalis got stronger? What if she raised a new army? What if she found a way to beat them? Or what if a new threat came along, one that was too much for the power of friendship to handle? He couldn't just sit idly by and let it happen to them, like it or not they needed more muscle on their team. If what that dragon said holds true, 'godlike' power would most certainly help in that regard.

Then there was the matter of his parents, they had lost their only child for centuries; he couldn't even fathom what sort of pain they must have gone through, only to find out that he was still alive. If he refused to reunite them, it would destroy them completely along with their kingdom.

But most importantly Spike would finally belong.

All his life Spike had always been somewhat of an outsider wherever he went. His dragon body made it so that he never fit in with ponies, heck to this day he still got a few strange looks from ponies from time to time, especially in Canterlot. He was too much of a pony in spirit to fit in with dragons, even if they are turning over a new leaf, the great dragon migration proved that much. But maybe the dragons that lived on Vlemm were different; that weird dream dragon did say that the dragons Spike knew belonged to a long forgotten breed called 'the horde' who were obsessed with gold and gems. Maybe this misshapen puzzle piece would finally find it's place in this world.

Spike picked up a quill "I know I might come to regret this someday. But there's no other way, I have to do this" he said to himself. Spike signed his name down on the line, sealing his fate for the next few years.

The contract began to glow and levitate off the desk. All of a sudden with a burst of energy, the contract disappeared into a plume of smoke which swirled around in the air to spell out a message: 'excellent choice Artair, I'm glad you accepted. A team of warriors will be along shortly to escort you out, so pack your possessions quickly. Feel free to leave your 'family' a note, but you may not inform them of where you've gone.' and with that the smoke dissipated leaving Spike alone in his room.

"Well that's it, no turning back now." Spike said, picking up a piece of paper and setting to work on his goodbye note

* * *

"What were you thinking Dash?!" Twilight shouted at her friend.

"I said I was sorry!"

Spike's dramatic departure from the room didn't escape Twilight's notice, neither did Rainbow Dash's little truth or dare stunt. The minute the wonderbolt returned, Twilight began to deal out a harsh scolding.

"Spike has a right to privacy! We can't just force him to talk about his feelings!" the princess shot back

"I was worried about the little guy!" said Rainbow Dash, trying to defend her actions

"So am I, but I still respect his right to keep a secret! Besides he learned his lesson after the incident with Owlicious; Spike knows that if he has a problem he can come to one of us about it!" Twilight shouted.

"Look; Spike already gave me this lecture, so can we just drop it?"

Twilight narrowed her eyes. "Alright fine, if Spike forgave you. But no more stunts like that again. alright?"

"Okay" Rainbow Dash replied sheepishly

The rest of the night went relatively smoothly, a few rowdy ponies here and there but nothing that had the same effect as Spike's outburst.

Once the party was over and everyone had said their goodbyes Twilight walked down to Spike's room and knocked on the door.

"Spike? Are you awake?"

There was a very slight commotion from behind the door, the sound of several items clattering about, before Spike cracked open the door and peered out

"Oh hey twilight. What's up?" Spike asked

"I just wanted to make sure you're okay after what happened with Rainbow Dash" replied the magenta princess.

Spike smiled "I'm fine Twilight. In fact I'm better than fine, all that stuff I was thinking about for the past few weeks….I think I've finally figured it out."

Twilight returned his cheery expression "that's great Spike! I'm glad you got through it."

"So am I Twi, so am I" spike said, with a smile that was almost a little too wide

Twilight then turned around and said over her shoulder "oh and don't forget to get up early tomorrow! Applejack needs help with a few chores around the farm"

"I won't!" Said Spike closing the door.

If only Twilight had paid a bit more attention to spike's expression she would have noticed that his smile was fake, that he was lying through his teeth. If she had tried a bit harder to get into his room, she would have seen that Spike had stripped his room bare, that all of his belongings had been stuffed into a duffle bag that Shining Armor had given him a few months ago. Such things would have brought on a series of questions that would have revealed exactly how Spike had 'worked through' his issues. But alas, she didn't and she just assumed everything was fine.

Oh how very wrong she was.

* * *

A loud tapping sound awoke Spike from his slumber.

After Twilight had left, Spike finished packing up all his belongings and swallowing the icky feeling that built up in the back of his throat when he lied to Twilight like that. He went to bed a few hours later, waiting for his escort.

Looking over to the window he could see a purple claw tapping away at the glass

As he got closer he saw that the claw belong to a female teenage dragon dressed in a ninja suit the same color as her scales, who was rappelling from a rope outside of the window.

Under a normal circumstance, when faced with such a situation, most ponies would freak out and call the royal guard. But Spike wasn't most ponies and these weren't normal circumstances. Instead, Spike slid open the window; quickly discovering that the ninja hadn't come alone. Following in after her, were three more dragons of the same size.

The first one, after the ninja, was a male orange dragon with red-orange irises. He was wearing a tan vest and torn-up brown shorts, he had a necklace with a small green gem hanging from his neck, and a satchel hung over his side. His messy dark orange scales were tied in a scrunchy on the back of his head in a makeshift ponytail.

The next was a pale blue dragon, Spike instantly recognized her; she was the same one from his dream that told his parents about his adventure in the Crystal Empire. She was dressed in a bright blue suit vest with white sleeves and a matching bow hanging from a her collar, dress slacks on her legs and a pair on bright red glasses balanced on her snout. She seemed to be almost hiding behind the orange dragon after crawling in through the window

The third and final dragon looked like a colored swapped version of an older version of spike. He had lime green scales and a purple fin almost the same shade as spike's scales. His clothes comprised of a dark green tank-top and workman's pants, a tool belt around his midsection with several different tools strapped to it. The biggest shock was his left arm, taking the place of a normal scaled arm was a metal prosthetic made out of tubes and wires that was robotic in appearance. Out of all of them, he had the brightest smile on his face.

Before Spike could even realize what was happening, the green dragon walked up to the baby dragon and scooped him up into a tight hug, Tears welling up in the latter's eyes.

"I can't describe how great it is to finally meet you big bro!" The dragon said through sobs.

"Wait. Wait, big bro?" Spike questioned

"Of course! Didn't Cobalt tell you about me? I'm your younger brother! Griffith!" he said with enthusiasm.

Spike began to sputter "I-I-I have a b-b-brother?!"

"Hey man it was just supposed to be the three of us getting you. But the mechanic here insisted on coming with us to see you." Said the orange dragon "He just got so excited when he found out about you, almost as much as your folks did."

Griffith finally released his older brother from the bone crushing hug. Then the orange dragon held out his claw to pull Spike back to his feet and said "name's Connor by the way. Nice to meet ya dude."

Spike shook it then looked at the dragon cowering behind Connor "and you are?"

The dragon just mumbled.

"What was that?" Asked Spike

"My name is Yam"

"I cannot hear what you're saying"

The ninja then let out a sigh and said "she said her name is Yam. Don't take the quietness personally, she's like this around new Drakes, especially royalty such as yourself." Then she pulled off her hood revealing her yellow irises, some small spikes running down her head making a small crest fin, two horns coming out of the back of her head, and an uncaring expression on her face.

"Okay then what's your name?" Asked spike

"Saphira. But don't bother to remember it, I'm only here to get you to the Vlemm Enclave. Once that's done, you're no longer my responsibility."

Spike was rather taken aback by Saphria's deadpan tone.

Griffith then leaned down to Spike and whispered "I know she seems like a bit of a jerk but she's actually a really good friend once you get to know her, she just hates showing it is all." He then stood up, clapping his hands together and saying "well now that introductions are out of the way, shall we get going? We've got a long journey ahead of us."

"Wait if that's true, how exactly did you get here so fast?" Spike asked "I signed that contract only a few hours ago."

"I have a teleporter!" Said Griffith proudly, but then his expression turned sheepish when he held a pile of smoking scrap metal "or at least I **had** a teleporter. Anyway now we gotta walk back; since, A. we can't use public transport looking like we do and B. flying would draw too much attention. You all packed up?"

Spike slid out the duffle bag from under his bed and slung it over his shoulder.

"Great. Let's get outta here before somebody sees us." He then picked up Spike in one arm, grabbed ahold of the rope with the other, and began shimming down the side of the castle. The others soon following suit.

Once they were all at the bottom; Saphria gave the rope a sharp tug, pulling it off the window, Erasing any evidence that they were even there.

With that, under the shroud of Luna's night, the group took off into the Everfree Forest.

'I'm sorry girls, I hope you can forgive me for this.' Spike thought to himself as they went deeper into the darkness.

* * *

The next morning, Twilight burst through the door to Spike's room looking rather annoyed "Spike! I told you to wake up early! We have to…." the pony princess immediately trailed off.

The shelves were empty, along with his desk and Spike was nowhere to be found.

Twilight threw open his closet, panic beginning to overtake her.

Empty and no Spike

She pulled off the covers of his bed.

No Spike.

She searched every possible hiding spot that existed within the confines of his room.

NO SPIKE.

Twilight begin to hyperventilate, going into a classic panic mode reminiscent of when she was late for a friendship report. Her first thoughts went to the worst case scenario: someone had broken into the castle, stolen all of Spike's belongings, and kidnapped the poor drake.

She looked at his desk and noticed a neatly folded piece of paper sitting on top of it. The ransom note no doubt.

She quickly unfolded it, expecting a bunch of cut out magazine letters hastily glued to the parchment like in her mystery novels. But instead she got a series of lines written in neat and clean cursive, she didn't even have to read the signature to know that Spike was the one who wrote this.

She rapidly read through the note, each line changing her panic into shock and sadness.

Once she had finished it, she calmly rolled up the note, strapped it to her side, and then flew through the window at full speed; literally smashing through it.

Only one thought was on her mind: she had to tell the girls what Spike had just done.


	2. princess pony panic

"Thanks again Shy for helping me out around the farm today" said Applejack, moving the last barrel of apples into the barn.

"It's no trouble at all Applejack. I just wonder why Twilight and Spike never showed up" the shy nature lover replied.

That detail had been a tad odd, before Applejack went home after the party she asked Twilight if she and Spike could help out with a few chores around the farm. Being the good friend that she was, Twilight accepted. But as Celestia's sun rose up over the horizon, neither of them ever showed up, even though Applejack waited an hour for them to come. Forcing her to ask Fluttershy for help, since everypony else was busy with their own lives.

Fluttershy then noticed a purple speck coming from the distance "wait, I think that's her now." Fluttershy said, pointing in the direction of her gaze.

As Twilight got closer, Applejack immediately noticed three things: Twilight had come alone, Spike wasn't riding on her back or flying next to her which again was weird considering the princess had said she'd bring along her assistant to help; secondly, the bookworm looked very, very distressed. A look she had seen before when Granny Smith had lost her in everfree when she was just a filly; lastly, Twilight was coming in fast, too fast…Twilight quickly began to spin out of control and went into a nosedive. She impacted into the dirt, **hard** , creating a rather large crater even relative to her size.

The orange earth pony rushed over to her friend and helped her back on her hooves, dusing her off. "Twilight! Are ya okay?! Ya took one heck of a spill there." asked Applejack, seeing that her friend was crying an awful lot. But rather than moans of pain, Applejack ended up being on the receiving end of a long winded babbling.

"OHMYCELESTIAAPPLEJACKYOUHAVETOHELPMESPIKERANAWAYWITHSOMESTRANGECREATURESANDIDON'TKNOWWHEREHEISANDI-" her ramblings were quickly cut off by a firm slap to the face.

"Sugarcube, calm down. Ah can't understand a word that you're saying, now tell me what happened." said Applejack in a calming tone.

In response, Twilight opened up one of the saddlebags strapped to her sides and held out a rolled parchment with her magic. Applejack plucked it out of the air and began to read it; her first expression being confusion, before turning into shock and then sadness.

Fluttershy gazed at the note over her friend's shoulder and right away tears began to well up in her eyes. The bleeding heart simply couldn't believe what she was reading; one of her closest friends, someone she had known and cared about for years, had ran away to Celestia knows where.

Applejack handed the scroll back to Twilight, the farmer pony trying her hardest to hold back the tears that so desperately wanted to escape her eyes. "Get the rest of girls together, we need to talk about this" Applejack said.

Fluttershy and Twilight took off in opposite directions, but with the same intent in mind. To figure out what they'd do now that the little brother of their group had gone missing.

* * *

While the mane 6 were off to a hectic morning, the baby dragon we all know and love was having a much more peaceful one. Snoring the day away on a log covered with soft moss acting as a mattress.

Currently Spike was having his favorite ice cream mountain dream, skiing mouth first down a hill of mint chip. Only for something long and sharp to jab his cheek, he waved at the air trying to swat away the invisible force only for it to double up on the pokes.

"Cut it out, I'm trying to gorge myself here" said Spike, only to snap awake when the force shoved him off the log he was resting on, into the hard dirt. Quickly spitting up the dust that he had accidentally inhaled in his surprise, Spike looked up to see Saphria looking at him with an extremely unamused expression.

"So sorry to interrupt your dream about filling yourself with over sugary frozen creme." Saphria said sarcastically. "But we can't just sleep the day away, we've got places to be Artair."

"She's right dude, we'll have plenty of time to chill out in Vlemm, but right now we gotta move." Connor said, tossing spike a ruby the size of a baseball.

The annoyance within the baby dragon instantly melted away at the sight of that large, juicy gem which he quickly devoured like a starving animal. Patting his belly in satisfaction afterwards.

Griffith moved to pick spike up, only for the baby dragon to swat him away when he realized what his brother was trying to do.

"Hey I'm perfectly capable of walking all by myself. You don't need to carry me." Spike said.

"You sure? I don't want you to fall behind big bro." replied Griffith.

"Griffith, the whole reason I came with you guys is so that everypony would stop babying me. I'm only a few years younger than princess Twilight, I'm practically a teenager for Celestia's sake" Spike shot back in annoyance.

"Okay, whatever you say Artair. But if you can't keep up then I'll carry you no matter what you say" the toolsmith said, handing Spike his duffle bag.

The group began to move through the thick foliage, Saphria taking the front and using a pair of kunai blades to cut through branches and vines that got in their way. It was a bit slower than their dash away from Ponyville because of this but they couldn't risk accidentally stumbling into some poison joke or a manticore taking a nap, as Connor pointed out. But at least the trees and bushes provided cover from any prying eyes so they didn't have to worry about being spotted.

"So Griffith." Spike said, trying to break the silence "what exactly are mom and dad like?". Ever since he left, one of the many questions on Spike's mind were what his parents would be like; he had heard they cared a lot about him but were they really good dragons? For all he knew his father could just be a watered down version of Torch, Ember's dad.

"Oh they're great, the greatest parents a drake could ever ask for." said Griffith "first there's dad, a tough and firm ruler who makes all the big decisions for the clan, he's a pretty intimidating guy when he's on that throne of his…even I feel small in front of it."

Spike's heart began to drop in his chest out of disappointment 'great' the baby dragon thought to himself 'I guess he's gonna be just like torch'

"But once he gets off of that chair" Griffith continued "he becomes a whole different dragon, just a big, scaley, pushover that wants to befriend everyone! He spends most of his free time just hanging around the enclave, having fun with the other dragons, organizing activities for us. He just radiates jolliness and it's highly contagious. When you see his smile you couldn't help but crack one of your own"

"And mom?"

"Mom is the sweetest dragon you'll ever meet! She's incredibly gentle and kind to everyone; always being the first to volunteer to help them out with whatever problems they might be having, great or small no questions asked. She also bakes stuff, all the time, for any reason or no reason at all. She's not just our mom Artair, she's basically the mother of Vlemm enclave." Griffith.

"For once I agree with you" remarked Saphria, hacking through the thick vines "if it wasn't for your father pushing me to train harder. I may not be the highly skilled warrior that stands before you now."

"I think that part is debatable." Griffith said under his breath

"Do you want me to beat you up again Griffith? You know I can." Saphria shot back at Spike's younger brother.

Right then a faint scream seemed to travel past them.

"Did you guys hear that? Or did I just eat some bad berries?" asked Connor

"Yeah I did, but I don't think we need to concern ourselves with it. We're here to get Artair home safely, not stop to help every single creature we come across who happens to be in distress." Saphria said, marching forward.

"She's got a point." Spike said. "The girls probably can handle it anyway."

* * *

Back in Ponyville a few onlookers had gathered outside of the castle; moments ago a loud and shrill yell came from inside the confines of the crystal walls, followed by a crystal chair being hurled through of one of the windows before shattering on the ground below.

Currently standing in front of the remains of said window was Rainbow Dash, Huffing and puffing like a raging steam engine. The very moment she heard the news that Spike had ran away from home, ponyville's resident athlete was sent into an uncontrollable rage; the chair that now laid broken at the base of the Castle of Friendship just so happened to be on the receiving end of that rage.

"THAT LITTLE JERK! WHO DOES HE THINK HE IS DOING THIS TO US?!" Rainbow Dash shouted, still seething with anger.

The others didn't give any sort of reply as they were all preoccupied with their own problems.

Fluttershy and Twilight were both sobbing their eyes out; Starlight trying to comfort the former but maintaining a sad mood nonetheless.

What few ponies knew was that Spike and Starlight were actually pretty good friends, she even considered him her third best friend (next to sunburst and twilight of course) for him to just up and abandon them like this, just because he felt like he was living it their shadows; it cut deep, almost like she lost Sunburst all over again. But she had to be strong, her mentor needed her.

Pinkie Pie wasn't faring much better; when Applejack first came to her with the news that ponyville's resident dragon had vanished, the party pony assumed it to be nothing more than a bad joke at first; even when she arrived at the Castle of Friendship to see tears gushing out of Twilight's eyes, she still remained in denial and merely thought that Spike was playing hide and seek. As the rest of her friends were wailing in anguish, Pinkie Pie was seeking high and low for Spike, getting more and more unhinged as the search went on; trying to desperately cling to the notion that Spike would never ever leave them in a million years.

Rarity had done one of her textbook dramatic faints onto a couch; when she came to, she hoped that it was nothing more than a nightmare but Applejack's forlorn expression said otherwise. She simply couldn't believe that her sweet, innocent, Spikey-Wikey would run away from home. Sure, he had left during the great dragon migration but they were still with him then, watching him from afar. But this was different, this time they didn't know where in Equestria he was or who he went with, they had no idea whether or not he was okay. Soon enough Rarity turned on the waterworks and cried into Applejack's shoulder, not caring that she was completely ruining her makeup; right now all she could think about was her poor Spikey-Wikey being lost and alone with nopony to protect him.

Applejack of course was deeply saddened by the news but refused to show it, after all strong mares didn't cry, no matter how much she wanted to let the tears flow. A few years after Spike had arrived with Twilight, he had become somewhat of a pillar of the community; just like the apples did. He was always there to crack a sarcastic joke or help out a friend when they really needed him. He was honest and dependable, just like her. Now that he's gone, Applejack felt like a piece of her was now missing, leaving a void within her soul that couldn't be filled.

All of a sudden Rainbow Dash slammed her hooves down onto the cutie map so hard it nearly cracked, almost immediately everypony went silent and gazed upon the look of fury that painted the athlete's face. She looked as if she was ready to kill somepony.

"OKAY LISTEN UP! JUST SITTING HERE AND CRYING WON'T DO US ANY GOOD! WE GOTTA DO SOMETHING" shouted the blue pegasus.

"But what darling?" asked Rarity, trying to clear the smeared makeup off her face.

"I say we go out there and we get our friend back." replied Rainbow Dash

"B-but" Fluttershy stuttered out "Spike said that in his note that he didn't want us to look for him"

"SCREW WHAT SPIKE SAID!" Rainbow Dash snapped at her best friend. "OR HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN THAT SPIKE'S JUST A BABY DRAGON?! HE DOESN'T KNOW WHAT'S BEST FOR HIM! HE CAN'T EVEN PROTECT HIMSELF, FOR ALL WE KNOW HE COULD BE LYING IN A DITCH SOMEWHERE, BLEEDING TO DEATH! DO YOU GIRLS REALLY WANT THAT ON YOUR CONSCIOUS?!"

Twilight looked up from her hooves and adopted a look of resolve "she's right! As Spike's friends and guardians, it's our job to make sure that he's safe! We can't just forget about him, he needs us!"

Starlight frowned "are you really sure about that Twilight? I mean from what you've told me, Spike's done an awful lot for equestria: winning the gauntlet of fire, reforming the changelings, saving you from a comic book villain, and saving the crystal empire twice. I think he can take care of himself" but as the voice of reason, she was cursed with going unheard.

"Well then what are ya'll waiting for? Let's get Spike back home!" Applejack said, bucking open the double doors and leading the charge while the rest of her friends followed behind. Leaving a stunned Starlight behind.

A loud clattering sound came from the adjacent hallway and Starlight turned around to see Pinkie Pie trying to pry a crystal vase off of her head.

"OKAY SPIKE, THE FUN'S OVER! YOU CAN COME OUT NOW!" Pinkie Pie said with an extremely uneasy tone, slightly muffled by the vase.

Starlight just shook her head in response and started off towards her room. "*sigh* I can already tell this is going to be an interesting day. Which means is the perfect time to stay inside and take a nap"

* * *

"Wow, they really let this place go didn't they?" Connor remarked, looking over the ruins of the castle of two sisters.

Night had begun to fall over the everfree forest and the dragons knew perfectly well that even beings as skilled as them wouldn't be able to survive a night out in the open of the hostile and unforgiving environment that surrounded them. That and they were exhausted from their trek, so they had no choice but to find shelter in the nearest pony made structure which happened to be the Castle of Two Sisters.

"I've read so much about this place, so many vital debates and history making events occured within these very walls" said Yam "it's so sad to see it in such disrepair."

"If it makes you feel any better, the library was still mostly intact when I came here with Twilight. I think most of the books are still there" Spike said

Almost immediately Yam let out a gasp and rushed up the stairs so fast she was nothing more than a blur of blue and white. Saphria just rolled her eyes and let out a chuckle

"Typical Yam, always obsessing over texts. We're probably not going to see her until tomorrow. Anyway, we should all get settled in for the night. I'll take first watch to ensure nobody stumbles upon our camp" said the ninja dragon.

Griffith nodded in response and proceeded to lead his older brother as well as his nature loving friend deeper into the castle while Saphria climbed up to one of dilapidated towers for a good vantage point.

The first day had gone smoothly enough, no major incidents or injuries. But there was still a long journey ahead, a lot could happen in that time. Especially since they were escorting the lost prince of the noble dragons, who just so happened to be a close ally of Equestria's greatest heros and the princesses.

'I swear to Bahamut this had better be worth it in the end.' Saphria thought to herself.

Soon enough the calming effect of the sounds of life within the forest, combined with the physical exhaustion of staying up so late and sitting still for so long begun to take it's toll on the poor dragon and she began to drift off to sleep.

Only for her eyes to immediately snap open at the sound of a loud whooshing sound.

Saphria hoped into a battle ready position and tried to locate the source of the disturbance. Her eyes eventually landed on the form of a blue pegasus with a rainbow colored mane, currently walking towards the entrance to the castle. Leaning closer she could barely make out what the mare was saying.

"If I was Spike and I was running away, the Castle of Two Sisters would be the first place I would hide. Man I wish I thought of this sooner, he's probably been here the whole time"

Saphira's eyes widened. This mare was obviously looking for Artair with the intent of bringing him back home by force. Which meant that a search had already been organized and there were other ponies out looking for him, that made this whole mission a lot harder now that they would all have to be even more careful to stay out of sight. Snapping out of her thoughts she saw that the mare was about to enter the castle, Saphria couldn't let that happen. So she leapt off her vantage point and, using several acrobatic moves, landed safely in front of the pegasus who jumped at the sudden appearance of the dragon.

"Halt!" Saphria shouted, pulling out two sai "state your business. Along with why I shouldn't kill you."

"Who the heck are you?" the pegasus replied.

"None of your business. Now I'm going to ask you again: what are you doing here?"

"I'm looking for my friend. He ran away from home and I need to bring him back, so you can either help or get out of my way" the pegasus said, advancing forward.

Saphria roughly shoved the mare back, "or I could stop you right now."

Saphira's opponent narrowed her eyes, "wait a second, you know where he is don't you?"

The ninja laughed in response "nothing gets past you does it? See I was dispatched by a very specific group to retrieve the one you call Spike and return him to where he belongs."

"Where he belongs?" the pegasus said in disbelief "Equestria is his home! He belongs here with us! Now get out of my way before I make you!"

Pointing her sais at the blue pony, Saphria grinned and said "well then, what are you waiting for? Bring it!"

The pegasus immediately charged and landed a solid blow to Saphira's chest, catching her off guard.

'Woah, she's much quicker than I anticipated. I'll have to adjust accordingly' though the purple dragon, just barely dodging a left hook. 'Keeping her at a distance won't work since she'll just keep rushing in faster than I can get away, so I'll have to keep this close quarters and let her come to me.'

The pegasus threw out a kick straight towards Saphira's head; but the dragon merely stepped aside, grabbed ahold of the hind hoof, and used it's momentum to easily toss the pony into one of the castle walls.

The mare shook off the blow and rushed in again, but once more Saphria dodged to the side and struck another blow in the pegasus' shoulder blade. Oddly enough it didn't hurt at all.

"What was that, a poke?" mocked the blue mare.

"No, it was a nerve bundle in your wings, might not have hurt but you'll be grounded for quite some time" Saphria said

The pegasus looked at her now limp wing, trying to lift it back up only to fall back down to her side. Gritting her teeth, the pegasus ran directly at the dragon; failing to realise that was exactly what the ninja was banking on.

Doding to the side again, Saphria swung out her sai and landed a deep cut into one of the pony's hind hooves, forcing her to the ground as blood began to trickle out. The pegasus looked up at her attacker with an expression of pure unbridled hatred. The mare lunged only to be caught mid-air and then knocked to the ground with a headbutt, a black eye starting to form.

Saphria formed a toothy grin as she kneeled down to the pegasus "you are strong and quick my friend. But you fight inexperienced, nothing held back, which left plenty of openings for me to strike; let this be a lesson for next time, if there is one." and with that, Saphria roughly kicked the pegasus in the face, knocking it out cold.

"Hmmm. if she wakes up before we all leave, she could run off and get help. I'd better make sure she stays put" said Saphria.

The dragon then picked up the mare and dragged her over to a nearby tree, pulling down a few vines she tied up the pegasus before stuffing a gag made up of a few stick in her maw. The pegasus beginning to stir at the actions.

"There." said Saphria, dusting off her hands "that should hold you for the night"

The pegasus began to struggle in response; letting out what was likely a string of explicit words, garbled by the gag.

"Don't worry, I'm sure one of your friends will come for you tomorrow morning, after we're long gone. But until then, you're staying put." Saphria said.

As she walked back inside the castle, she saw that Connor was coming down the main stairs.

"Oh hey Saphi, Griffith said it was my shift now. You can go and get some rest" said the orange dragon.

"Thank you Connor"

"So anything happen during your shift?"

Saphria looked over her shoulder at the pegasus who was trying in vain to break her bonds before turning back towards Connor.

"No, nothing at all. It was fairly boring to say the least"

"Bummer man, I was hoping for some action. Ah well, take care now." Connor said as he climbed up to the vantage point.

For now, the group would rest peacefully within the ruins of the once mighty castle. But come the next morning it would be pure and utter chaos not just for them, but for their pursuers as well.


	3. forest follies

"How exactly did this happen?!" Twilight said

Five of the elements of harmony had spend the entire night searching for their dragon friend but couldn't find a single trace of him anywhere. Things only got worse when Rainbow Dash disappeared as well halfway through the search; they did eventually find the pegasus, but were shocked to see her bloody, bruised, and tied to a tree.

"I already told you! I tried to get into the castle of two sisters to look for spike, but then a dragon appeared out of nowhere, beat me up, and then tied me to this tree!" she shouted "NOW CAN YOU PLEASE UNTIE ME?! MY WINGS ARE STARTING TO CRAMP UP!"

The last vine finally snapped and rainbow dash tumbled to the ground in a heap, trying to stand up only to feel a sharp pain shoot up her injured hind hoof; rainbow dash immediately fell back down onto her flank and winced.

"Ah man, that jerk really got me good there. I can't believe I lost so badly to her!" shouted the athlete as fluttershy bandaged up her friend's wound.

"Well at least we know that spike's traveling with other dragons now. And do you all know what that means" said twilight

Rarity's eyes widened "surely you don't think that ember is somehow involved with all this do you?"

"No of course not, she'd never allow spike to do something like this. I was thinking that we might be dealing with a few rogue teenage dragons that came from the dragon lands, I mean where else could a dragon this skilled in combat" twilight motioned to rainbow dash for emphasis "come from? Certainly she couldn't have been living in equestria all this time."

"Hey ya'll, come take a look at this" said applejack, having seperated from the group to take a look around the castle for clues.

The rest of her friends soon joined her and found that her hoof was pointed at a series of footprints, ones that looked alot like they belonged to dragons of varying sizes; including one that was about the size of a baby dragon.

"The dragon lands can wait, right now I got a score to settle." said rainbow dash, immediately running off in the direction of the tracks with her friends following close behind.

* * *

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" spike shouted.

"I was sent to keep you safe, that's what I was doing." saphria replied.

At first light, the group had vacated the castle of two sisters out of the back entrance so that the blue pegasus wouldn't tip off her allies to their location. Along the way they had chatted a bit about various topics, until somehow the conversation had shifted to last night and saphria let the details of her little brawl slip; causing spike to freak out.

"WELL YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO BEAT HER UP AND TIE HER TO A TREE!" spike shot back

"Honestly I think I was being merciful, I could have broken several more of her bones" saphria said.

"I don't know saphria, artair's got a point" said griffith, looking up from the log he was sawing on.

Once saphria informed the group that there were search parties out looking for spike, it quickly became apparent that they would have to hustle if they wanted to get back to the vlemm enclave uncaptured. So connor made the suggestion of building a raft and sailing down the river towards the northwest ocean, said raft is what griffith was currently working on.

"Excuse me?" said saphria, glaring at the mechanic.

"Well sure we need to protect big bro, but don't you think leaving her in the middle of everfree, completely defenceless, was a bit much. I mean what if a manticore or timberwolf came along and saw the free meal?"

"Well, I-um" saphria stuttered out, trying to justify her behavior

"Not to mention the various injuries she sustained" added yam, "it was just one pegasus saphria, you could have just done a quick, non-lethal, stealth takedown to render her unconscious and leave it at that"

"But I-"

"Saphria, don't you remember dad's one rule: only kill when no other alternative is available. You essentially left her for dead out there, which is the same thing as killing someone" said griffith.

Seeing that there was no possible way to justify her behavior, saphria conceded defeat. They did have a point after all, she may have overdone it given the threat level. Not to mention how irresponsible she acted, at the very least she could have hidden the pegasus in the tops of the trees and left her ungagged which would have at least provided some minor cover. She was just on edge from a lack of sleep, along with how much weight was put on her shoulders from this mission; she was basically transporting the hopes and dreams of the vlemm enclave in the form of a smart-alec baby dragon.

"Alright, alright I'm sorry!" shouted the ninja dragon "I messed up, okay?! Can we please just forget about it?"

Spike just huffed and mumbled under his breath.

"What was that?"

"I said fine! But until to prove otherwise, I don't trust you saphria. Not anymore, if you need me I'll be over with yam." with that the baby dragon stormed off.

Saphria just stood there bewildered, did she seriously just get both lectured and told off by a dragon half her size? She tried to shake it off, she was saphria for bahumut's sake, one of the strongest warriors of the vlemm enclave whose stealth feats made even the shroud of night envy her. So what if she had lost the trust of the prince of vlemm enclave, she didn't care what a puny baby dragon thought of her…..so why did what he said make her feel so bad?

All of a sudden, connor bursts from the bushes with multiple scrapes and bruises on his body, trying to catch his breath.

"Oh my, connor what happened to you?!" yam shouted, rushing to his side.

Connor ignored bookworm and simply said "we gotta get going, like right now."

* * *

 _ **30 minutes ago**_

Connor was humming to himself peacefully, gathering some edible berries from one of the bushes that they had passed by on the way to the river. They did have ample provisions but a few extra bits here and there couldn't hurt, it wasn't like he was obsessively collecting gems like the horde did.

He was pretty happy about the recent turn of events, apart of course from saphria brutalizing that pegasus; he probably should have figured something was up when he saw that pony tied to a tree but he was too tired at the time to really care. Artair was a good dragon buddy to have, it was nice to meet another dragon who didn't eat meat like the others; sure there were a few vegetarians on the vlemm enclave like him but for the prince to be like that was another level of cool. Not to mention how laid back the little guy was, saphria was all serious and griffith was constantly babbling about his gadgets, yam always got all sweaty and nervous when he was around, but artair was one of those who just wanted to stop and smell the roses from time to time like him; sure he could be serious when he wanted to but he wasn't high strung.

He was suddenly brought out of his thoughts by the sound of snapping twigs, and a voice shouting "COME ON, THE TRACKS LEAD THROUGH HERE!"

Standing up to survey his surroundings, connor saw that there was a group of about five ponies running towards the clearing, one of whom was the pegasus from last night.

'Ah balls, those must be her friends wanting to settle the score. I'd better try to talk them down from it, ponies are rational right?' connor thought to himself as he jogged over.

As he emerged from the trees the group skidded to a halt in front of him, clearly not expecting his presence.

"Hi dudettes, what brings you out here?" connor asked.

"Who are you? Are you with that brute saphria?" asked the white unicorn mare

"Name's connor and let me just start by saying that what saphi did to your friend was totally out of line. She didn't need to take it that far to protect the little dude, I'm really sorry about what happened." connor replied, trying not to instigate a fight.

"So you are with her?" accused the blue pegasus, getting in his face

"Okay bra, can you like, move back? you're kinda invading my personal space." said connor, stepping back from the mare "and yeah I am with saphi, me, her, and the other guys are supposed to make sure that ol artair makes it to the vlemm enclave in one piece"

The group seemed to relax their stances, seeing that the dragon wasn't about to attack them on sight like the last one did, but they still kept their guard around them.

"Wait, when you say artair, do you mean spike?" asked the purple alicorn.

"Is that what you call him? What kinda lame name is that?" said connor "his parents named him artair so that's what we call him"

"Spike has parents?!" the pony in the stenson said in disbelief.

"Of course, everybody's got parents. At least one pair, what did you think he just materialized out of nowhere? But anyways, you never answered my question, what are you all doing out here?"

"We came looking for spike, he needs to come back home" said the alicorn

"I couldn't agree more ms…."

"Twilight, princess twilight sparkle" the pony called twilight answered as a matter of factly

"Right, twilight. Anyway that's what we're doing, bringing artair to his home to be among his own kind." connor said

Twilight just blinked in confusion. "I think you misunderstood. Spike belongs with us, his home is equestria."

"A dragon among ponies? Please, he'd stick out like a sore thumb. He needs to be with other dragon dudes like him" connor shot back

"He already tried that!" shouted the blue pegasus "and from what I can tell he doesn't belong with you treasure obsessed bullies"

"Treasure obsessed? Are you talking about horde dragons? No no no, artair definitely doesn't belong with those lameoids; he belongs with the noble dragons, the ones who are much more chill and worldly, he'd fit right in." connor said, his patience slowly wearing thin

"Yeah right, and I've got a bridge to sell you. Listen, either you get out of our way or we'll force you to." the blue pegasus said, pounding her hooves together for emphasis.

"Geeze, what is your damage?! Artair came with us because he wanted to, it's not like we forced him or anything." connor said defensively "he wants to go to the enclave, he wants to be among his own kind, he WANTS to meet his parents. Who the heck are you to deny him that?"

"Ponies who truly know what's best for him" the white unicorn said with a self righteous air.

'Okay maybe saphi was onto something, these ponies clearly aren't listening to reason' connor thought to himself, readying his plantmancer powers.

"Look I was sent to make sure the little dude gets home safely and I won't let you take that away from him. So if you want to get to artair you're gonna have to get through me" said connor, assuming a battle stance.

For a mere moment, both sides just stood there, glaring at each other, waiting for someone to make the first move. Eventually it was applejack who broke the stand on, charging full speed at connor like a battering ram; only to collide with a wall of thick vines that suddenly burst from the ground in front of connor.

"Ya know it's not that smart to fight a plantmancer dragon in the middle of a for-EUGH!"

Connor was suddenly cut off by a focused blast of magic striking him in the side, sending him sprawling. The vegetarian quickly recovered and shot out a vine whip at the offending alicorn, swatting her across the face.

"That was seriously uncool bra!" connor shouted, rubbing his scorched side.

"Well how about this?!" shouted rainbow dash, aiming a flying kick directly at the dragon's face

Connor narrowly managed to dodge the blow, wrapping a vine around the pegasus' outstretched hoof and using it to slam her to the ground. Then connor summoned up several roots and wrapped them around rainbow dash's body, holding her in place.

"Stay." connor said firmly to the struggling pegasus.

The vegetarian turned around just in time to see a very angry, yellow pegasus slam right into him. The look of fury on her face rivaled even the fires of tartarus, the series of blows that she inflicted upon the poor dragon were about the same intensity.

"YOU. BIG. MEAN. JERK!" shouted fluttershy with every single punch she threw down onto the poor dragon who was trying in vain to shield himself.

Once he got over the surprise and slight terror brought on by this mare's attack, connor's adrenaline started to kick in. When the pegasus paused for a moment to breath, connor used the opening to wrap his arms around her, forcing her forehooves to her sides. Then he caused a massive flower to sprout under their feet, when the plant reached its peak, connor threw fluttershy over the side and she hit the ground with a loud thud, a small whimper escaping the shy animal lover.

"ANYONE ELSE WANT A PIECE OF ME?!" connor shouted, only to lose his focus when the flower he was standing on came tumbling down and him along with it.

Through pure luck, connor managed to land on his feet when he hit the ground and escaped the fall unharmed; looking over he saw that the farmer pony had uprooted the entire plant in a surprising show of earth pony strength.

"I think I'm gonna need some help with this one" connor remarked, gritting his teeth

The dragon began to conjure green energy from his hands, the light swirling and pulsating around his upper limbs, connor cast it out towards the nearby trees. When the energy made contact, the plant life suddenly uprooted itself and stood at attention in front of their new master, connor; who pointed at the ponies and said "HOLD THEM DOWN"

The now living trees obeyed without question and began to advance on the ponies, holding out their large branches with the intent of capture. Prompting the ponies to scatter away in hopes of spreading their new threat thin.

Just as connor thought it was safe to make a run for it; a large rock flew past his head, narrowly missing it's intended target. The nature lover spun on his heel to see the white unicorn mare was picking up nearby rocks with her magic and flinging them at him.

"WHAT HAVE YOU BRUTES DONE WITH MY SPIKEY-WIKEY?! WHERE IS HE!" she shouted, throwing another volley at connor.

"We've kept him safe!" connor shouted back, "and I don't like you getting all beefy with me!". Connor then shoved his hands into the soil, causing a crack to form in the ground that lead directly towards the unicorn assaulting him. She was caught completely off guard when a pair of hands made of leaves and dirt sprouted from under her; grabbing ahold of her hooves, they dragged her into the ground until only her head was showing.

The fashionista let out a shrill scream when it occurred to her that three-quarters of her body was now covered in dirt and mud.

"Oh get over yourself, getting in touch with nature won't kill ya" connor said, rolling his eyes at the drama displayed by the pony.

"NO BUT I MIGHT!" rainbow dash shouted.

It happened so fast connor barely could even register what had hit him, rainbow dash had landed a hard punch to the back of the dragon's head in such a way that it left him stunned. Unfortunately for dash, one of the tree golems took her by surprise and managed to restrain her; preventing her from doing anymore damage to their master.

Connor stumbled around, head spinning, trying to shake off the blow and clear out the stars.

'By bahumut, that pony packed a friggin punch, I can barely see straight' connor thought to himself.

"ENOUGH" twilight shouted in a booming voice, followed by a bright flash of purple light that engulfed the entire clearing and knocked connor onto his butt.

As connor tried to get back on his feet, a blur of orange pinned him to the ground and held him there. The dragon looked up to see a very displeased set of green eyes staring back at him.

"Okay here's how this is gonna work partner." applejack said, her voice dripping venom. "Yer gonna tell us where spike and your buddies are or we're gonna smack you silly until you do"

Connor took the time to survey his surroundings and was horrified, all of his golems had been destroyed by the spell and all the ponies were now free; he was completely at their mercy. He couldn't just give up, the king and queen were depending on him, he needed a plan and fast

Then one came to him, it was risky but if it worked he'd get away clean.

Connor mumbled a phrase under his breath.

"What?" twilight asked, taking a step closer.

"Can you come a little closer bra?" connor mumbled again

"Could you please speak up?" asked rarity, stepping closer.

"I said- SURPRISE!" connor shouted as several black plants with a crab-like appearance sprouted up from the ground, surrounding them.

"PLUNDERSEEDS!" twilight shouted "TAKE COVER!"

But it was too late, almost instantly the plants began to spew out their teal gas; showering the group in it and one by one they collapsed, out cold.

Shoving the orange earth pony off of him, connor stood up and looked over his now unconscious attackers.

"Sorry dudettes, it didn't need to be this way. But you forced me too." connor remarked, "I'd better get back to the others, I think saphria needs to have like a chat with me about what happened on her shift."

With that, connor quickly ran away from the scene; forcing the plants back into the ground and leaving five unconscious ponies behind.

* * *

 _ **Now**_

"Anyways, I don't know how long those disharmony plants will keep those ponies down so we have to leave right fricking now." said connor.

"Fine, I was hoping for a break but if you want me to rush it…." griffith said.

Suddenly the green dragon began swirling around the pieces of wood creating a massive dust cloud that completely shrouded over him, the sounds of banging and drilling emanating from behind it. When the dust finally cleared there was a small, beautifully carved, sailboat sitting on the riverbank.

As the other rushed over to help get the ship in the water, spike just stood there with his mouth hanging open in shock.

"H-How, how did you do that?!" spike stammered out.

"It's my aura big bro. I can fix anything, build anything, and do it stupid fast." spike's younger brother replied "now hop in!"

The baby dragon shook off his amazement and complied with the request, sitting near the helm with connor and yam, griffith hopped on the steering wheel and saphria began to manipulate the sails. Right then, as if it was divine intervention, a large gust of wind blew by and carried the ship rapidly down the river until it was nothing more than a speck on the horizon.

"NEXT STOP, THE VLEMM ENCLAVE!" griffith shouted.

"NO NO NO!" twilight shouted in frustration

Moments ago, the elements of harmony had regained consciousness from their little plunderseed induced nap to see that the orange dragon had slipped away. They followed his footprints all the way to the river only to find that the trail ended there, if the discarded trash and sawdust was anything to go by, they had just barely missed the group and spike along with them.

"We had him, we fricking had him and now he's gone!" rainbow dash yelled in frustration, taking her anger out on a tree. "Now what are we supposed to do? We have no clue where they're headed!"

The princess of friendship snapped her head up as if she had just had a shocking revelation.

"Wait a minute, yes we do!"

"What do you mean twi?" asked applejack, trying to treat the bump on top of her head.

"That orange dragon we fought earlier, he said that they were taking spike somewhere called the 'vlemm enclave.'. If we can figure out where that is, we might be able to intercept them before they get there!" twilight said excitedly.

"But darling none of us have ever even heard of the vlemm enclave." rarity said.

"Maybe not, but the library back at the castle has dozens of geography and history books dating back several hundred moons. There has got to be something about the location of the vlemm enclave, come on everypony" twilight said, taking off in the air towards her home.

"You heard her, move yer flanks!" applejack said, leading the pack.

Unfortunately, the mane six were completely oblivious to the fact that when the noble dragons swore to secrecy, **THEY MEANT IT.**


	4. baltimare blitz part 1

"UGH THIS IS HOPELESS" Twilight shouted.

For the past week, Twilight and her friends had searched the castle library from top to bottom for any sort of clue to the location to the Vlemm enclave. Their working and social obligations had forced everypony but Twilight to abandon the search, making it take six times as long as it should have. But it was all in vain, as the princess couldn't find a single reference to the Vlemm enclave or the noble dragons and she was very thorough in her studies; reading through every history and geography book several times, before moving on to fables and legends, then ending with every other book she had in hopes of there being some sort of reference, alas nothing came of it.

Letting out a sigh of exasperation, Twilight slumped over onto the table "I don't understand, I've checked every book concerning the history of Equestria dating back thousands of moons and yet there is no mention of anything called 'nobel dragons'. It's like they never even existed in the first place."

Her ears darted up at the sound of a plate being slid onto the table, she looked over and saw a daffodil and daisy sandwich coupled with some hay fries that had been freshly made.

"Thank you Starlight" said Twilight, taking a bite of the sandwich.

"Well somepony has to make sure you don't waste away in here, you sure aren't gonna" replied Twilight's protege. "Any luck so far?"

"Sadly no, nopony seemed to know anything about the noble dragons; or at least nothing worth documenting which seems impossible, so there has to be another explanation" said the princess, shoveling a hoof of hay fries into her mouth.

"Well Ember is the dragon lord, maybe she knows something or one of her subjects do. They'd probably know more about dragon history than ponies do" Starlight said, only to jump back when Twilight whipped her head around so fast you'd think her neck should have snapped.

"Are you crazy?! If I did that, I'd have to tell her Spike ran away and knowing Ember she'd flip out! You know how much she cares about Spike!"

Unfortunately Starlight knew exactly what her mentor was talking about: Starlight had gone over to visit Ember in the dragon lands on a diplomatic mission that was really just an excuse to hang out with her second favorite dragon friend. While there she accidentally stumbled upon a small shrine dedicated to Spike, made up of some shed scales, a few stolen personal belongings, and numerous pictures. Out of pure shock she never brought up this discovery with Ember but one thing was clear: the dragon lord had a crush on Spike, one that bordered on obsession.

"Besides, that dragon Connor already made it clear that neither him nor any of the dragons that have Spike are associated with Ember. So we have no more leads"

"Well look at the bright side, at least things can't get any worse." Starlight said.

As if on cue, a stream of golden magic flew in threw an open window and materialized a scroll with a royal seal on it. Recognizing it as a message from Celestia, Twilight quickly unraveled it to see the message.

 _Dear twilight,_

 _Gather together your friends and get to Canterlot, there is an urgent matter I wish to discuss with you all concerning recent events involving Spike._

 _Sincerely, Princess Celestia._

Twilight slammed her head onto the desk in frustration "things just got worse."

* * *

"Well at least things can't get any worse" said Connor, looking over the wreckage.

A mere fifteen minutes ago, a strong gust of wind had plowed directly into the sails of the noble dragons' ship; sending them careening directly into a set of sharp rocks that completely demolished the ship, luckily they all made it to the shore completely unharmed thanks to quick thinking.

If that wasn't enough, a further consultation of their map lead them all to the realization that they had spent the last week traveling in the wrong direction and ended up on the coast opposite to the one they were supposed to be on; not to mention they landed only a few miles away from Baltimare, putting them at a direct risk of discovery.

"You really shouldn't say that Connor" Spike remarked "that phrase causes the universe to make things worse."

A clap of thunder suddenly echoed off the horizon and rain began to pour down from the heavens, forcing the group to take shelter under some nearby trees.

"See?" Spike said

Connor just frowned in response, looking away from the baby dragon.

Saphria let out a sigh as she and Yam looked over the map, "how in the name of Tartarus did we miss this? All we had to do was go one way and somehow we messed that up!"

"Well to be fair the noble dragons have very few updated maps of Equestria" said Yam "our mapmakers only go off of what little they have seen of reconnaissance missions."

"I suppose you're right. But we need a plan to get us out of this, we aren't exactly in an ideal position for our current mission." Saphria said.

"Way ahead of you Saphi." said Griffith, shutting closed a small console on his prosthetic arm. "I sent out a distress signal to the rest of the guys, they said they'd bring the airship around to come and get all of us out of here."

"Perfect, how soon until they get here?"

"Eehhh, even if they double time it. They won't arrive until tomorrow night."

Saphria few back down into a sitting position and rubbed her eyes "great, that's just great. Where are we supposed to hide for the next day? Staying out in the open this close to a pony city isn't going to cut it."

"I might have an idea" said Yam. "If what I've read is correct, Baltimare is home to a large shipping port. Most of the items that come in from overseas have to pass through here."

"How does this help us?" questioned Saphria.

"Well Saphria, that means that there are likely plenty of warehouses scattered around the city made for holding all of the imports and exports; with a little luck we might be able to find an abandoned one and turn it into a temporary base. Yes we'd be right in the center of a pony hive but as long as we take the steps to remain out of sight and bar entry from any ponies that wouldn't be a big concern." Yam said.

"Okay but then there's the matter of actually getting **INTO** the city undetected Yam." Saphria said before turning to Griffith who was about to make another suggestion. "And no Griffith we are not using your cloaking device, the last time we used that poor Crystal ended up being caught naked in the middle of our village."

"How about the sewers? It isn't the cleanest but it can take us all over town without being spotted." Spike said.

"Well….not a great option but I can't come up with anything better." said the purple ninja dragon. "Let's do it."

The group began to make their way down to the city, using the shroud created by the rainstorm as a makeshift cover for their approach. Ducking behind bushes and into alleyways everytime a pony came across; it was slow going sure, but the group was more concerned with safety than speed.

Along the way, Saphria managed to swipe a map of the city from a few tourists and used it to pinpoint a few potential locations for their temp lair. After passing by a few blocks they had made it to a manhole cover that was out of the way from any busy streets and completely unattended.

"Okay so I've narrowed it down to three possible options" said Saphria, climbing down the ladder into the damp and dark tunnels "the first is one on gallop way, only a mile from here, but it's a bit on the small side; the second one is further down from us on mane street and used to house refrigerated goods, bigger but also next to a busier part of town; the third one is off by horseshoe avenue, honestly I'm not sure what they're keeping there but it's the largest of the three and it relatively out of the way, but it is a thirty mile trek there, one through the sludge of the sewers."

"Well the second one's out. We can't like, set up shop with all those prying eyes right outside." Connor said.

"Good point." Saphria said, crossing out the marked warehouse.

"How about we check out the first one and if it's no good we head out to the last one, they're both on the same route anyways" remarked Spike's younger brother Griffith.

And with that, our draconic protagonists began their trek through the rancid muck that had began to flood the tunnels from the rainfall; intent on finishing their quest no matter the cost.

* * *

Princess Celestia was currently laying on her bed, a forlorn expression painted across her face and a very important picture clutched in her hooves.

Taken a few months after Spike had been hatched, the photo depicted Spike cuddled up to the princess of the sun, resting peacefully in her hooves like a newborn foal. She had plenty of photos from when she had played a role in raising the dragon over the years alongside Twilight, but this was by far her favorite; truly capturing the innocence that her adopted son held about him, innocence that she would go to any length to protect.

The door to her room open and one of the royal guard trotted in "Princess, Twilight and her friends have arrived and await you in the dining room."

Letting out a sigh, Celestia placed the frame back in its usual place on her nightstand. She rubbed her eyes and said "tell them I will be down shortly" in an uncharacteristically monotone voice.

Within minutes the group was seated in the dining room, five of the elements of harmony plus Starlight glimmer had been nervously fidgeting in their seats the entire time; after all given the circumstances, there was a good chance they were in serious trouble.

"Oh man I feel like I'm back in cloudsdale high, right before you have to meet with the principle" Rainbow Dash whispered.

The double doors that served as the entrance flew open and Princess Celestia entered, causing all of the elements of harmony and Starlight to sit up straight in response as if they were mere fillies still in elementary school when the teacher entered the room.

At first there was nothing but an awkward silence filling the air, Celestia repeatedly opening and closing her mouth like a fish out of water as she attempted to figure out where she should start the discussion.

Rarity ended up being the first to the punch: "Princess are….are you upset with us?"

The princess of the sun just rubbed her eyes "while I am upset, it's not with any of you. I'm merely disappointed, especially with you Twilight"

"Me?!" the princess of friendship exclaimed.

"When I handed Spike over to you as your assistant Twilight, I was entrusting you to ensure the safety of my son and while also giving him a much needed friend. To see that you've failed in such a way, it's….it's just disappointing" said Celestia

Those words completely crushed Twilight, shattering her heart into thousands of pieces. Hysterics, she could have handled; mommy bearlestia, she could have handled; but disapproval, from the mentor that she has looked up to all her life, the one that has guided her through harsh times, the feelings brought forth by such a state was the one she feared the most: the feeling of failure.

But the rest of her friends were having a very different reaction, the feelings of disappointment radiating from Celestia wasn't what they picked up on; rather it was the shocking revelation that Spike was actually Celestia's adopted son.

"Wait an apple pickin minute, did you jus say that Spike is yer son?!" exclaimed Applejack

"Why of course, originally I had planned to only act as a caretaker until Spike was old enough to be handed over to Twilight's family. But I….I grew attached to him, he gave me what I had lost with Luna; a family. Even after he was placed into Twilight's care I still arranged for occasional 'mommy meetups' to put it eloquently, just for the sake of spending more time with him." replied Celestia.

"Does" Rarity said, taking in a deep breath "does this mean that Spike has been a prince this entire time?!"

"Well considering I did use my authority as princess to make the adoption official, I would say that yes, Spike is technically a prince of Equestria"

A look of disbelief crawled across Rarity's face, her eyes twitching rapidly, before they rolled into the back of her head and the fashionista fell over on the floor; passed out cold. The pure shock of how an opportunity to become a member of the royal family had been sitting in front of her for years was something that her mind just couldn't handle.

"But we're getting off topic. Right now it's imperative that we track down Spike and convince him to return home." said Celestia, trying to ignore the unconscious unicorn.

"But you're the princess of the sun! Can't you just use your alicorn magic to locate him or something?" said Rainbow Dash

"Unfortunately we've been unable to since there has been a very strange magical interference." said Luna walking in and catching everypony's attention "ever since we've heard about my nephew's disappearance, we've both tried to use our abilities to pinpoint Spike's location: but every attempt has been blocked by this strange field of magical energy, jamming up our own spells."

Celestia sighed "I'm afraid Luna is correct, this magic….it's unlike anything we've ever seen in the history of Equestria, something so powerful that not even we can overcome it. So we're forced to use simpler means, this is where you all will come in"

The princess then used her magic to materialize a large map of Equestria onto the dining room table.

"I've already sent out orders to the royal guard squads across equestria to keep an eye out for Spike along with all the dragons he's been traveling with. But the search will have to consist of you six alone, if I were to start sending royal guards out on a dragon hunt, my subjects may begin asking questions and if they found out that there was a rogue group of dragons on the loose with unknown abilities it could cause a panic. It is for that same reason that I am forced to keep my contributions at a minimum."

"Well you've been around for thousands of years Celestia" said Twilight "surely you know where the Vlemm enclave is, or at least have heard a clue to its location"

Celestia made a very strange face at that comment; one very rarely seen on the princess' faces because the need to make it almost never arose, especially when said occasion involved knowledge of equestria's past: it was the face of a pony completely and utterly stumped.

"Hard as this may be to believe twilight…..I've never even heard of such a place existing, much less its location." said the princess of the sun,

"It seems only natural." said luna "even when the noble dragons were still around they were incredibly secretive, meticiously keeping themselves as well as their knowledge hidden from all the other races; ponies, griffins, yaks, hippogriffs, minotaurs, diamond dogs, zebras, changelings, and even most dragons lacked any knowledge of their ways; the only reason I even knew that they existed was because they asked for my assistance in their war. Which only makes them even more dangerous as an unknown adversary, I advise you all to proceed with extreme caution."

"B-but surely there must be some record of them somewhere?" Twilight protested, entering the early stages of one of her textbook freakouts "it impossible that an entire society could just be completely invisible to all of equestria."

Celestia merely sighed "several years after their defeat in the dragon clan wars, mentions of their society in text and art began to disappear; books and paintings were stolen, scholars were silenced, the noble dragons had entered a crusade to force the world to forget about them for unknown reasons and in time they succeeded. I'm sorry Twilight, but the noble dragons have all but been erased from history; if you wish to find Spike you'll have to go searching for him"

Twilight lowered her head, they were right back where they started; Spike somewhere out in Equestria, traveling with some unknown dragons who may very well have been feeding him lies and they had no clue of how to find him at all. He could be a million miles away by now for all they knew.

* * *

"Okay let's see if this one is any good." said Griffith, pushing open the manhole cover inside of the warehouse.

So far, the dragons' search for a temporary base had been fruitless: the first had turned out to be a production plant for hay burgers and thus was swarmed with ponies, the second was in the process of being demolished for a new barnyard bargains, which left the third as their only remaining option.

"Hmmm, looks empty enough. If the cobwebs and dust are anything to go by, nobody's been here for quite awhile either." said Saphria following after her mechanic friend.

"What do you think Artair?" asked Connor

Spike couldn't give a response, all he could do was shiver in the nature lovers arms, a look of horror plastered onto his face, it was like he had watched pony-centipede all over again only this time it was real.

"Oh don't tell me you're still freaked out by what we saw at the first warehouse big bro." said Griffith

"I-I just can't believe it. I never knew THAT was what went into a hayburger, or the hayfries too…..I'm never eating at mchoofs again." Spike replied, his face turning a shade of green that matched his brother's scales

"That is exactly why I became a vegetarian bro." Connor said. "But anyway, I'm gonna take a look outside. See what's up with the foot traffic."

Saphria nodded "Good idea, I'll check a few of these crates. See if there's anything we might be able to use."

"I wouldn't" Spike said, swallowing the bile that had built up in the back of his stomach "these crates say they belong to the Gallops company"

"Which means what exactly?"

"It means" said Spike, kicking one of the crates causing a wave of pogs to fallout "that they're all filled with nothing but lame toys and other useless junk that was popular a few dozen moons ago"

Griffith was the next to crack open a crate and found it to be filled with rubber bands in very odd shapes "who would trade for these?"

"Eh back then it was a different time, Gallops made the most useless toys of all time; everything from horseshoes with wheels in them to these really creepy and annoying talking dolls, I think they were called 'furnies' or something like that. Twilight made me do a whole report on in when she was going through my homeschooling phase."

"Well at least we won't have to worry about anyone stumbling upon this place, it looks fairly abandoned. I doubt even a single ounce of this garbage has sold in the last year."

"Not to mention that there's like nobody outside, the street is like a ghost town. So we're all set here." said Connor,

"Well then I guess I'd better get to work on the rest of this place, I can probably make us a home away from home even with all this junk. I've done more with less after all" said Griffith as he plucked a few tools off of his belt.

"I'll keep watch from the roof, see if the situation changes, remember we're still in a large metropolitan area so there is always the threat of someone stumbling upon us by chance" said Saphria

Connor just shrugged, "and that's my cue to go rest for a bit, maybe sprout up some lavender spores, I stink"

Soon enough it was just Spike and Yam standing there together, the former turning towards the latter and saying "so what's your story Yam?"

"Me? Oh no, you don't want to hear about that. I'll just bore you" replied Yam

Spike chuckled "Yam, I've sat through a two hour long lecture on the entire life story of Starswirl the Bearded given by a pony who thinks the subject is way more interesting than it really is. There is no way you can be more boring than that."

Yam rubbed her arm like a nervous school filly, she was already pretty awkward to begin with but being in the presence of a living legend only served to worsen her anxiety; but then again, Artair seemed to be pretty nice and understanding, maybe she was panicking over nothing.

The light blue dragon cleared her throat and took a seat on the concrete floor "well, I was born roughly forty-five moons ago and naturally I was raised on the Vlemm enclave. Ever since I was a hatchling I'd had a thirst for knowledge, I learned to read early on and began to burn through any book I could get my hands on. But I found stories about Equestira in particular especially intriguing because of all the the legendary feats of his heros alongside the numerous contradictions within their societies"

"What do you mean?"

"Well early on, ponies discriminated against each other based upon their abilities which I find very strange as it is both counter productive as well as just plain stupid, they're all still ponies right? But I'm straying from the topic at hand; I spent most of my early days indoors, as a lonely bookworm."

'Wow, her childhood is almost exactly like Twilight's' Spike thought to himself

"But...that all changed when Connor came by, I'll never forget that day." said Yam, letting out a sigh "I was still in my baby dragon form as was Connor, he had stopped by to borrow one of my many botany books and I gladly complied. But when he came back to return it a few days later, he stayed around to talk to me. Despite our differences, him being an outdoorsy nature lover and me being more of an indoor dragon, we just connected on a spiritual level of sorts; Connor was the very first friend I ever had. After a while I began to go outside more, if nothing to spend time with Connor and he ended up introducing me to Saphria." Yam paused for a moment. "I don't know what she saw that shy baby dragon that I used to be, potential perhaps, but whatever it was Saphria was determined to let it loose. She helped me connect with my aura."

To demonstrate, she picked up a nearby pile of rubber bands in one of her claws. Focusing in, Yam caused a blue cloud of energy to surround the pile and they began to turn completely white, a slight crackling noise emanating from them. When the energy field dissipated, Yam violently threw the bands down onto the floor where they shattered upon impact.

"The power of frost, I have complete and total mastery over ice and snow and can freeze any object at will. I'd like to say that I discovered them through Saphria's training but it happened completely by accident, I had been doing some tedious late night studying for another lesson with the dragoness in question and was severely exhausted from the lack of sleep combined with brutal exercise. I fumbled around for the drink I had prepared for myself in a half awake stupor, when I went for a sip I had found that it had been frozen solid. With some experimentation I had found out that I had activated my aura and after awhile I grew to become skilled at it, but to this day I've yet to discover the full extent of my powers. That was actually the reason I had stumbled upon you Artair."

"You mean the frozen north was a…" Spike began.

"Training exercise yes, I theorized that if I immersed myself in an environment that suited my aura I may be able to discover more about it. What I didn't account for was the reappearance of the Crystal Empire as well as you. I guess my life is just full of happy accidents" Yam finished. A slight blush appearing across her face.

"Wow, so it was just chance that I was discovered? All this could have easily been avoided if you hadn't discovered your powers?" asked Spike.

"In a way, yes. But the universe works in mysterious ways, even I could never hope to understand them. What I do know is that everything happens for a reason" replied the frost dragon.

Spike sprouted a cheshire smile "you mean like your crush on Connor?"

Yam's focus had been completely shattered and she was reduced to sputtering out incoherent phrases.

"Oh don't lie, when you mentioned him you had that same dumb look on your face as I did when I think about Rarity."

Yam finally gained back her composure and got onto her knees "please don't tell the others, they'll never let me hear the end of it! Connor won't look at me ever again!"

"Hey it's fine, I won't say anything. But you'll have to eventually, otherwise you might just spend the rest of your life wondering what might have been." replied Spike, "anyways, good talk. I'm gonna go see how Griffith is coming along with our beds. See ya."

This left Yam all by herself, face red as a tomato. Shaking it off, the dragoness let out a sigh "he really is the son of Frinad and Layla, both in kindness and wisdom. He'll make for a fine prince."

Yam then decided to spend the rest of their time here doing what she usually did in her free time, reading. After all, nobody knew where they were besides the rescue team. So what could go wrong?


	5. baltimare blitz part 2

Starlight slammed open the door to Twilight's room which prompted the purple alicorn to pull the covers over her head, a groan escaping her lips. Starlight rolled her eyes and used her magic to yank the blanket off the bed.

"Come on Twilight you need to get up!" shouted Starlight

"Just a little longer." whined Twilight

"First of all, it's almost noon. Second of all,

* * *

you shouldn't have stayed up so late in the first place. And finally, as much as it pains me to remind you, it's reshelving day and you never miss that." Starlight replied in a tone similar to a mother scolding a bratty child.

Twilight sat up and rubbed one of her eyes with a hoof, glancing out the window she saw that Celestia's sun was indeed high in the sky; meaning that she had slept most of the day away.

"Oh, I guess I did kind of sleep in today. Spike is usually the one to wake me when I…." the princess trailed off as tears began to well up in her eyes.

Starlight preemptively grabbed a box of tissues right as Twilight began bawling.

"W-W-W-WE LOST SPIKE! HE RAN A-A-AWAY AND WE CAN'T FIND HIM!" Twilight blubbered between sobs. "OH IT'S ALL MY FAULT! I SHOULD HAVE PAID MORE ATTENTION TO-" Twilight never got to finish her sentence by a sharp stinging pain that came across her face as her head jerked violently to the side.

Once she recovered, Twilight looked at exactly what the offending object that had struck her was: apparently Starlight had just back hoofed her across the cheek.

"Stop it." she said with a firm and authoritarian tone "you can cry over losing Spike, heck I want to too. But don't ever blame yourself, none of us could have seen this coming, none of us kicked him out, and it's not our fault things have turned out the way that they did. Anyway how about we get to reshelving? That always cheers you up."

Twilight honked her nose into a tissue, clearing out the very last of the snot built up in her nose "okay….yeah, maybe a bit of reshelving would make me feel better."

"That's the spirit" replied starlight "but first let's get some breakfast in you, since neither of us can cook we should head out to sugarcube corner for some pastries."

"A donut would hit the spot right about now" said Twilight, following her student out the door.

* * *

One of the windows to Sugarcube Corner was shattered by a large table flying through it, landing directly in front of the princess of friendship.

If one was to look around the surrounding area they would see a crowd of ponies gathered around the bakery, either mumbling to themselves or cowering in fear at whatever beast was causing the ruckus within the building itself; the sounds of screaming and furniture crashing against walls among other things were resonating outwards from it. Amongst the crowd were the owners of Sugarcube corner, mr. and ms. Cake with their children Pumpkin and Pound, all of whom were shaking in fear.

And here Starlight was hoping for a semi-peaceful morning for a change.

"Do I even want to ask?" said Starlight.

The Cake family turned around and breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of the princess of friendship and her apprentice.

"Oh thank goodness you're here, you have to do something!" said Carrot Cake

"About what?"

"Pinkie Pie!" shouted Cup Cake "we don't know what happened! One minute she's as bright and cheery as she usually is, and the next minute she just goes berserk and starts breaking things!"

"How long has this been happening?" asked Twilight

"Over an hour now, I thought that she would have burnt herself out by now but she's still going strong"

Starlight just gave the bakers 'the look' "really? You thought Pinkie Pie would burn herself out?"

Carrot Cake just focused his vision at the ground, awkwardly kicking his hoof against it. "Point taken… but regardless, you're still her friends! There must be something you can do!"

"*sigh* give us a few minutes" said Twilight, leading her friend into the bakery to confront the raging pink tornado that was currently occupying it.

The inside of Sugarcube Corner didn't look much better than the outside, the earlier metaphor of bright pink tornado certainly fit: chairs and tables were either overturned or in pieces, the display cases were shattered, and various treats were splattered across the walls like a modern art masterpiece.

As the alicorn and the unicorn surveyed the damage, a series of crashes followed by yells of anguish echoed from the kitchen. Twilight and Starlight merely gave each other a nod as they pushed their way through the double doors.

The kitchen was in a similar chaotic state: food painting the walls, various utensils strewn about, and a sink that had been ripped from the wall and thrown to the floor. In the center of all the chaos was Pinkie Pie, curled up into a ball and rocking back and forth; from where they were standing, Starlight and Twilight could almost see their friend seething with anger.

"Pinkie?"

"WHAT?!" the pink earth pony barked out, spinning around to face the pair.

Twilight took a step back from pinkie, purely out of fear for her own wellbeing. Pinkie was completely red in the face, muzzle curled up into a violent frown, nostrils flaring like a raging bull, and her eyes were that of a manticore just before it went berserk; the creature in front of her wasn't the fun loving Pinkie Pie, it was a beast of pure unbridled rage.

"Are….are you alright?" Twilight asked cautiously, only for Pinkie's glare to intensify.

"DO I LOOK ALRIGHT TO YOU?!" Pinkie Pie shouted back "TO ANSWER YOU, NO! NO I'M NOT OKAY!"

Pinkie then picked up a large cooking pot and proceeded to chuck it through one of the few remaining windows that had not yet been shattered.

"AND IT'S ALL SPIKE'S FAULT! HE THINKS HE CAN JUST UP AND LEAVE US LIKE THIS FOR SOME STUPID SELF-HELP QUEST. WELL I WON'T STAND FOR IT, OR MY NAME ISN'T PINKIE DIANE PIE! YOU CAN'T JUST CHECK INTO SOMEONE'S LIFE AND CHECK BACK OUT AGAIN, I'M NO HOTEL!" Pinkie bucked a nearby counter for emphasis, shattering it into pieces.

"LIKE IT OR NOT I AM GONNA FIND THAT DRAGON AND GIVE HIM A PIECE OF MY MIND AND A HOOF CUPCAKE TO THE FACE!"

After finishing her rant, Pinkie returned to trashing the kitchen in a blind fury.

"Oh I think I see what's happening here." said Starlight.

"You do?"

"Pinkie must be going through the seven stages of grief, she passed through the first stage this week: denial. Now she's moved onto anger, I never knew it would be this violent though." Starlight ducked down as a cupcake tray sailed over her head.

Looking back, Twilight realized that it was pretty obvious: all week Pinkie had been asking Twilight why Spike didn't come around for his usual gem cupcakes, 'pretending' that Spike was just playing hide and seek, and pestering the others over why she hasn't seen her little dragon buddy lately; but Twilight just brushed it off as Pinkie being Pinkie"

"Well then there's clearly no reasoning with her at this point" remarked Twilight as Pinkie tore off the door to one of the ovens "this is a grieving process for her, so we'll just have to put her somewhere where she can't hurt anypony or herself"

With that, Twilight's horn began to glow as she formed a sleep spell; casting the bolt of magic out, it hit Pinkie dead on causing the earth pony to freeze mid air and just stay there for a few moments before gravity kicked back in sending her to the floor, the series of snores that escaped Pinkie's lips signified that the spell had done it's job. Twilight then hoisted one of her friend's hooves over her shoulder while Starlight took the other one and they dragged their friend out of the shop.

Once outside, the crowd flinched slightly at the appearance of the pony that had caused all the damage but seeing her out cold put them all at ease and the ponies dispersed seeing that the show was over, apart from the Cakes of course.

"Sorry this had to happen, it's been rough ever since last week when Spike left. Send me the bill for repairs, I'll cover it all." said Twilight

The Cakes just gave a weak smile "thanks Twilight, and sorry about what happened with Spike. I know you and the girls were pretty close to him, best of luck in your search."

"Thank you."

As the trio walked the streets of ponyville, or rather as the duo dragged their third wheel through town; Twilight let out a sigh. The others hadn't been doing any better than Pinkie since their meeting with Celestia, after all if the princess of the sun herself didn't know anything about these strange dragons then what chance did they have of tracking them down?

Rarity's creative spirit seemed to have been shrunken slightly, given all her designs were still beautiful but they just seemed a bit less dazzling, a bit less eye popping, a bit less….like Rarity. Only those close to her could really see the difference.

Applejack had chosen to numb the pain the only way she knew how: hard work. She started doing anything and everything she could on the farm, refusing any sort of help. Her family was forced to intervene when she was nearly crushed by a barrel of cider after dropping it when she passed out from pure exhaustion.

Rainbow dash, the jock everypony knew and loved, coped about the same way as her farmer friend but rather tire herself out with work she did it with exercise instead. Three-hundred wing-ups, three-hundred sit-ups, three-hundred squats, and three laps around a one-hundred mile course. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Nopony could see it as Dash sped by in a blue blur, but she was running herself ragged out of grief.

Fluttershy had withdrawn from her social life, true she still did things with her friends from time to time, but she had spent most of the week locked inside her cottage; silently sobbing over the loss of a friend while the creatures of the forest tried in vain to cheer up their caretaker to no avail.

But regardless of how they were affected by the disappearance of their dragon friend, they all had the same question on their mind: Was Spike okay?

Pulling Pinkie Pie closer over her shoulder, twilight grumbled "the worst part about all this is that we don't even know what these dragons have planned for Spike, they could have been lying about his parents to gain sympathy. For all we know they could be planning to use Spike against us to take over equestria."

"Well they haven't sent us any sort of ransom note or threat letter so there's nothing to worry about at the moment." replied Starlight.

"Nothing to worry about?! What if-" but Starlight silenced the princess of friendship

"Listen Twilight, these are just teenage dragons, strong ones but still teenage dragons. Not to mention we've essentially forced them into hiding, if something does go wrong we can handle it like we always do."

Twilight nodded, Starlight did have a point. While things have looked bleak in the past, her friends always came through in the end. Then all of a sudden an idea popped into her head, one that could possibly solve their current problems.

"Wait what did you just say Starlight?" asked Twilight.

"These are just teen-"

"No before that"

"They haven't sent us a ransom note or threat letter?" said Starlight in a confused tone.

Twilight's eyes began to sparkle as the many gears in her head began to turn. "THAT'S IT!" without so much as another word the princess disappeared in a flash of light, dropping her pink friend to the ground and leaving Starlight all alone.

"OH DARN IT TWILIGHT! *sigh* well I guess I have to pick up the slack, like usual." said Starlight, hoisting Pinkie Pie onto her back.

* * *

Twilight was rushing around her personal library, throwing books of the shelves so quickly one would think there was a poltergeist in the room with her, rushing from text to text in excitement; she had figured out how to find Spike, all she needed to do was to find the item she needed to do it.

"WHERE IS IT?! WHERE IS IT?!" shouted Twilight, throwing the complete history of yarn vol.5 to the floor.

The door slammed open, revealing a still asleep Pinkie Pie and a very tired and very displeased looking Starlight Glimmer who immediately dropped the former to the floor in a heap.

Twilight barely even spared either of her friends a glance, the only acknowledgement she gave was a quick look over her shoulder to pinpoint the source of the noise before resuming her search for whatever it was she was looking for.

"I'm so sorry Starlight, I didn't mean to leave you in the middle of ponyville all alone forcing you to drag Pinkie all the way back to the castle" said Starlight, imitating her mentor "oh no problem Twilight, thank you for apologizing I'm sure you had a good reason for it."

Twilight didn't even pick up on Starlight's comments, she just kept on rooting through her bookshelves; even going as so far as to accidentally hit Starlight in the face with an encyclopedia through careless action.

"Yes! Finally!" Twilight exclaimed in elation, for she had finally found the one object that would allow her to pinpoint the exact location of her lost assistant.

"TWILIGHT!" Starlight shouted.

Pulling her attention away from her prize, Twilight noticed starlight standing there for the first time but also failing to see the massive black eye developing on her friend's face.

"Oh hi Starlight, when did you get here? Never mind, listen I think I found out a way to find Spike; all we'll need is this" said Twilight holding up the item in question.

For a normal pony, tracking down where a specific creature is at during an exact moment in time would require a very powerful spell or magical artifact. But Twilight is anything but normal, which likely explained why that the thing she had searched so long and hard for was nothing more than a simple paper scroll used for relaying messages to and from Princess Celestia.

"And how exactly does this help us?" asked Starlight

"Simple, Spike's fire magic allows him to send and receive messages from the various princesses, myself included, at any given time. As far as I know he can't prevent the messages from going through, even when he wants them to. So all I have to do is place a tracking spell on this scroll and send it to him, once it remateralizes on the other end we'll know exactly where spike is right now." replied Twilight, eyes gleaming with excitement

Starlight just stood there, letting the words of her mentor sink in. She had been pretty conflicted over the past week regarding the recent events; on the one hoof, it hurt for Spike to leave the way he did, it hurt to watch her friends get hurt by his actions and she wished he would come home; but on the other hoof, Spike didn't leave out of spite, he left because he wanted to discover himself, to become stronger to protect those whom he loved so who was starlight to stand in the way of that? She was caught in a crossroad, both sides would lead to pain for one said but she didn't know who she could live with hurting.

Quickly making up her mind, Starlight decided to keep her intervention in this endeavor at a minimum: "are you sure this is a good idea Twilight?"

"What do you mean? Of course this is a good idea, we'll be able to find Spike!"

"I know that but, what if...what if he doesn't want to be found? The letter he left was very clear that he didn't want us to look for him no matter how badly we wanted to, is it really okay to go against him like this?"

Twilight just dismissed Starlight's concerns "even if that were somehow true; Spike's just a baby, not to mention he tends to make rash decisions a lot without thinking things through. Remember when Thorax and Ember came to visit ponyville? When we find him we'll all show him why he should stay with us, why he needs to."

"Alright, but if this blows up in your faces don't say I didn't warn you" remarked Starlight, as she watched Twilight prime the spell.

Soon enough the paper began to glow as the first bit of magic was applied; then with a bright flash, followed by a stream of smoke flying out the window the scroll was gone. Twilight kept her eyes closed in concentration, trying to keep her focus on the quick moving scroll as it soared over the landscape so that she didn't lose track of it's location. After a few short minutes she opened her eyes and smiled.

"Got him. He's in Baltimare, get the girls together while I contact the royal guard troop. We've got a friend to rescue." said the princess of friendship.

* * *

"Draw two" said Spike

"Darn it, fine I'll just put down my purple skip so Griffith doesn't get his turn" said Connor.

The group was currently playing a game of 'ONE' the classic card game where you had to get rid of all the cards in your hand by playing one down that was the same color or number while preventing your opponents from doing the same by making them draw more cards. Griffith currently held the lead with Spike close behind, placing Connor in third and Yam in dead last.

So far their stay in Baltimare had been completely and utterly uneventful. Sure a few small groups of ponies may have ventured a bit close to their hideout but none dare entered, they barely even gave the dilapidated building a glance. By the looks of things they would be on their way to the Vlemm enclave without any incident.

"And with my orange three down it looks like I win" said Spike triumphantly while the rest of the noble dragons threw their cards down in frustration.

"Five times in a row, how are you so good at this dude?" asked Connor

Spike just shrugged "I guess I just have magi-*hic*". That little hiccup made Spike blink in confusion "I said I have ma-*hic*, m-*hic* *hic* *hic*" soon enough a series of rapid hiccups began to burst out from the dragon, like a river dam that just gave way.

Griffith patted his older brother on the back "you alright?"

"I *hic* can't *hic* stop *hic*" replied the dragon.

"Maybe he just needs a drink of water, I'll go get one" said Yam.

Before she could even stand up however, Spike's cheeks puffed up and he let out a long and loud burp of fire. One that materialized a small glowing scroll.

"What's going on here?" said Saphria

"I'm not exactly sure" said Yam "but it looks like Artair just burped up a scroll"

"Alright but why is it glowing?"

Griffith picked up the scroll and began to fiddle with it in his hands, he could tell there wasn't anything written on it so why was it here? It wasn't normal even for a noble dragon to just burp up random objects. Using the robotics in his prosthetic arm he did a minor scan of the scroll to try and detect any magical effects on it. When the results came back his eyes widened so much that they might as well have popped out of their sockets.

"We need to leave." said Griffith.

"What?"

"NOW. this scroll has a tracking spell on it, from big bro's old friends no doubt. Chances are once they zero in on it they'll be here within minutes." Griffith explained, tearing up the scroll to break off the spell

"But you said that the rescue won't arrive for another few hours!" shouted Yam "what are we supposed to do?!"

"I call them and tell them that their later has to become a now, but apart from that we have to run and evade until they arrive." said Griffith "it'll be hard since we're in unfamiliar urban territory but with a bit of luck we might just be able to make it."

"Alright you heard the drake!" shouted Saphria "MOVE IT EVERYONE!"

The dragons quickly sprung into action, packing up all their stuff as fast as they could. Getting caught would have dire consequences for them all. After they had collected themselves they snuck out the back door into the alleyways of the city, crossing their fingers that nopony would see them.

* * *

The royal guard smashed in the doorway to the warehouse, the mane six soon following after.

Upon hearing that Twilight had managed to track down Spike, everypony dropped what they were doing to come after them and as an added bonus they got to Baltimare within record time.

"SPIKE! WHERE ARE YA?!" shouted Applejack

"YEAH YOU'VE GOT A LOT OF EXPLAINING TO DO!" shouted Pinkie Pie, throwing aside boxes to see if the baby dragon was hiding behind any of them.

"It doesn't appear as though anypony has been here for ages. Twilight are you sure this is where the scroll went?" said rarity, flinching away from the dusty crates.

"Positive, I never lost focus for a seco…..oh darn it." said Twilight, holding up the shredded pieces of parchment "they must have caught onto what we were trying to do and slipped away."

"Well they didn't seem ta get far" said Applejack, pointing at the footprints leading out the back door.

Fluttershy walked up next to her farmer friend and examined the prints, "these are still fresh. They might still be nearby." she said with slight excitement.

"Well what are we waiting for?!" Rainbow Dash shouted "let's go!" the pegasus quickly darted out a nearby window into the city scape. Her friends and the guards quickly following

Addressing the guards, Twilight spoke in a tone of regality "you are all to spread out and search the city in pairs. Keep an eye out for a group of teenage dragons, and be careful as they appear to be very strong." the guards saluted the princess and took off in various directions.

'Soon we'll get Spike back, soon everything will be okay again…..I hope' thought Twilight, trying to ignore the nagging feeling of Starlight's words in the back of her head.

"Perfect, now they've got the royal guards involved with this. I guess those ponies had more pull in their government than I thought" said Saphria, peering at the patrols from behind a dumpster.

"Well to be fair one of them is the princess of friendship. It's only natural that she would have her own royal guard squads." commented Griffith.

They had only managed to move across five city blocks before the group was forced to duck behind cover when a squad of pegasi guards flew overhead.

"Well that isn't the only thing" said Spike.

"What do you mean? Artair have you been keeping a secret from us?" accused Saphria.

"See the thing is when Twilight hatched me all those years ago, she was still too young to take care of me and I was placed in Princess Celestia's hands."

"The sun goddess?" said Connor

"Yeah, as she took care of me she grew attached and sort of adopted me as her son."

The rest of the group just stared at Spike as if he had sprouted a second head right then and there.

"So what you're saying is that you're the adopted son of the sun goddess and therefore a prince of Equestria?" said Yam "because that certainly complicates matters."

Saphria just clutched her head in frustration "any reason that you didn't feel the need to share this earlier?!"

"Well first of all you guys never asked me. Secondly it didn't seem important at the time."

"He does have a point there Saphi. Can't fault the little guy for that." said Griffith.

Saphria sighed "you know what? Fine, whatever. The past is the past, we'll deal with it. Speaking of which I see an opening, follow my lead."

The five dragons dashed their way across the street, hoping to get over to the next alleyway. Unfortunately dear old Murphy decided to join them on their little jaunt.

"HEY THERE THEY ARE!" shouted a gruff female voice.

The five of them comically pausing mid stride to look at the pony in question, it was Rainbow Dash flying several feet above ground level looking very angry.

"Oh not her again." muttered Saphria "I thought she would have learned her lesson by now."

"Perhaps she forgot about what you did." Yam hopefully said.

Those hopes were quickly dashed as Rainbow Dash cracked her hooves and said "and you! It's time for a rematch!" charging at the group like a raging bull.

History repeated itself however, as by charging forward she left herself wide open to projectiles. Like the stun device Griffith threw at her, nailing the pegasus in the chest the device administered a controlled shock that paralyzed her, making her limp body crash painfully down onto the asphalt.

"Wow you were right. This one doesn't really think things through, anyway let's keep moving before her friends show up." said Griffith

"Too late" said Spike, pointing at the herd of angry ponies galloping towards them.

Jumping through the window of opportunity, the group ran off into the adjacent alleyway and the chase was on.

While Twilight's gang was clearly faster than the dragons by running on four legs as opposed to two, the lean build of the teenage dragons gave them the agility they needed to keep ahead; even Spike showed that he was actually fairly athletic despite his pudgy appearance.

They ran all over town: hopping over carts, pushing ponies aside, cutting through buildings, trying anything and everything to stay ahead of their pursuers.

Luck wasn't on the side of the dragons today and Saphria made a wrong turn and led them directly into a dead end of walls and locked doors. Swallowing the lump in her throat, the ninja was the first to turn around and face her aggressors.

"We have you now!" said Twilight.

The noble dragons darted their heads around, looking for any sort of escape route that would get them out but sadly they were cornered; it looked like the end of the line for them. Resigned to their fates, the rest of the noble dragons followed Saphria and faced the ponies. For a few moments there was nothing but silence between the two groups apart from the gasps as they tried to catch their breaths, waiting for the other to speak first.

"Well you got us? Now what?" said Connor "are you gonna execute us? Torture us? Throw us in a dungeon? What it's gonna be?"

Sucking in a breath of air, Twilight beat down the whirlwind of emotions flowing through her at the sight of her assistant. "Alright here's the deal. You've caused a lot of trouble for me and my friends, enough to put you all away for a long time. But I'm willing to give you an allowance."

"An allowance?" asked Saphria

"Yes an allowance. As in I'm ALLOWING you all to go free and I'm ALLOWING you to be spared from Celestia's wrath. All you have to do is hand Spike over to us right now."

Saphria's face scrunched up "out of the question! Even if I did believe that you'd keep your promise I'd never betray Frinad and Layla like that! You want us, fine! But we won't go down easy." the ninja quickly drew her blades out.

As twilight was about to give the orders to the guards to seize the group, Griffith spoke up "wait hold on a minute maybe she has a point. Even if the deal is a bit cold."

"Are you listening to yourself Griffith?! They're going to arrest us no matter what we do, I'm not giving up my honor just so you can avoid a confrontation!"

Griffith gave a cheeky smile "I dunno, it seems like a bright idea."

Saphria's expression changed when she realised what Griffith was trying to do. So she let out a mock sigh and sheathed her weapons "I suppose you're right Griffith, we're clearly outmatched and there is no shame in a tactical surrender" she kneeled in from of the ponies and held out her wrists as Griffith did the same "go ahead, take us away."

Twilight blinked in confusion, this had actually never happened before; a villain outright surrendering in such a way, especially after such an impassioned speech. Something was wrong but she couldn't put her hoof on it, shrugging it off she motioned for the royal guard to slap the hoof cuffs on the dragons.

But she made the amature mistake of letting her guard down against a crafty opponent; as when the guards got close enough, Griffith pressed down into the palm of his prosthetic arm with his thumb and a series of faint beeps sounded off. Even if the guards knew what was going to happen next, it was doubtful they would have gotten away in time; the entire alleyway was consumed by a bright flash, blinding the ponies but leaving the dragons unharmed.

"NOW YAM!" shouted Griffith.

The blue dragon nodded and shot out a flurry of snow at Twilight's group, scattering them as well as further stunning them. Once the way had been cleared, the dragons dashed off leaving a very ticked off crew of ponies in their wake.

"WHY THOSE DIRTY LITTLE!" shouted Pinkie, still in rage mode "GET BACK HERE! WE'RE NOT DONE YET!" She was the first to recover and resume the chase after the dragons.

Twilight popped her head out of the mound of snow and looked around. Her friends were still able to get back up but the royal guards had been completely taken out of action.

"This is going to be harder than I thought" said Twilight.

* * *

Further up the road the dragons were still running as if their lives depended on it, and given that they were being chased by a raging ball of pink energy they might as well be.

"HURRY UP SHE'S GAINING ON US!" spike shouted, having been placed on Connor piggy back style the moment he started to fall behind.

"I CAN SEE THAT ARTAIR!" Saphria shouted back, throwing a trash can towards the party pony.

As they dashed through the streets in a blind panic, the group inevitably stumbled into one of the more hustling and bustling parts of the city and of course a group of teenage dragons running like a bat out of Tartarus didn't go unnoticed.

"Are those dragons? In Baltimare?!"

"And the elements of harmony are following them?"

"Isn't that Spike from the Crystal Empire?"

"Has anybody seen my Appleloosa victory hat?"

All of the questions were ignored as the two groups pushed their way through the crowds in an attempt to gain ground but it quickly got difficult as more and more curious and slightly panicked ponies began to gather around them.

"Gah! There's too much foot traffic around here! We need to get off the street and out of sight!" said saphria as she was roughly pushing ponies aside, she swore one stallion actually tried to cop a feel.

"Quick into that mall! We can lose them in there!" shouted Griffith.

Saphria took the lead and grabbed spike out of Connor's arms and lept on top of the swelling crowd, using their heads as stepping stones to get around them. She was forced to duck and roll however when an angry blue blur darted straight at her.

"GIVE ME MY FRIEND!" shouted Rainbow Dash.

"SCREW OFF! THE PRINCE BELONGS TO NO ONE!" shouted Saphria, landing a lucky kick to the mare's face and then proceeding to dart inside the mall with Spike in tow; failing to notice that all of her friends had fallen behind and were now engaging the elements of harmony in combat.

The mall actually wasn't much better than outside, since most of the stores were having massive sales which caused a massive influx of ponies to spend the day in the mall. To this, Saphria huffed in annoyance; she couldn't seem to catch a break today, it was just one screw up after another.

"STOP RIGHT THERE YOU DRAGONNAPPER!" shouted a female voice

Turning around Saphria was met with the sight of one VERY angry party pony who had a look of death in her eyes; a look she hadn't seen since….the incident, but that was a story for another time and place; right now, Saphria had to run for her very life.

Dashing further into the mall Saphria began to make use of her ninja aura to further increase her speed and agility, she couldn't risk capture or worse death; with this pony it was truly up in the air. Thankfully she seemed to be gaining distance.

Meanwhile the baby dragon clutched in her arms was squirming and kicking in fear, shouting at Saphria to go faster. Because if there's one thing that he feared above all else, it was an angry Pinkie Pie. This wasn't a broken pinkie promise mad, this was an entirely new level of mad, one that he had never even seen before in his life.

"GO GO GO! SHE'S GONNA KILL US!" screamed Spike as Saphria jumped up to the second floor.

"Will you be quiet! I need to focus in order to stay ahead of the-" Saphria said before a pink hoof nailed her square in the face.

The force behind the blow was massive, sending the poor dragoness flying through the air and skidding on the tile floor. Looking up she saw that the party pony had somehow caught up to her during the moments she had paused to speak to Spike and was now standing above her with an unhinged grin.

"So, you think you can just waltz into Ponyville and take our friend away from us? Away from me? Oh I don't think so." said Pinkie Pie

Saphria pulled out one of her knives but Pinkie effortlessly swatted it away.

"You've hurt my friends, made them cry and made me one angry pony." said Pinkie Pie, gritting her teeth "now you're gonna pay... . . "

In the blink of an eye Pinkie had lept on Saphria and began to beat the everliving snot out of her, mercilessly smashing her hooves into the dragon so hard that bruises began to form.

Saphria tried to fight back but the disadvantageous position combined with the fact that this pony was somehow physically stronger than her made it next to impossible, all she could do was try in vain to brave the blows.

Eventually, Pinkie's rage induced assault wore down Saphria and she collapsed from pain; leaving her on the ground and on the verge of blacking out. But it wasn't enough for Pinkie, as she pulled out her party cannon and positioned Saphria so that she was point black to the mouth of the weapon. Yanking the string, the ninja dragon was sent sailing over the railing and down to the first floor with an audible thud and several party favors.

Sucking in a deep breath, Pinkie turned around to face Spike who was cowering behind a plant; he had wanted to help Saphria but he was too paralyzed with fear to do anything and now the only dragon who could save him from Pinkie's wrath was out cold. He was promptly broken out of his stupor as Pinkie began to stroll towards him, making Spike back away in fear.

"And you. Do you have any idea what you've done to us? To me? We've been worried sick about you! We felt like we failed as friends! All because you wanted to 'find yourself'?" Pinkie snapped.

Spike bumped up against the wall, this was it, end of the road, he was cornered.

"Don't you get it?! We need you! And no punk dragons are gonna change it! So now I'm going to drag you all the way back to Ponyville, kicking and screaming if I gotta! Then we're gonna deal with your dragon friends and all the trouble they caused!" she spat in the baby dragon's face "so be a good dragon and come with ma-OOF!"

Her rant abruptly ended when she ended up bowled over by a flash of red. Quickly hopping to her feet, Pinkie tried to get a look at what the heck had hit her; but she never got the chance as whatever it was came back and struck her again from behind, sending her sprawling once more. This process was repeated as she was hit again and again and again by this mysterious force until two finishing blows were landed: one sent her into the air, the other caused her to fly into a china shop with a loud crash followed by screams of anguish from the shop owner.

At last, Spike was able to bear witness to what exactly had just saved him: it was another teenage dragon of the female variety, this one had bright red scales and a neon yellow fin running from her head down to her back along with an underbelly of the same color, no wings and a tail that was long and thin like a whip with a spear like end, black tribal tattoos adorned her arms, her legs, and her tail along with a set on her cheeks, her torso was covered by a white tank top with the words 'party dragon' written in red and her legs had what looked like skin tight runners leggings.

The dragon turned around and smiled at Spike, before scooping him up without a word.

"Hey what are you-" began spike only for the red dragon to press a claw to his lips.

"Shush baby, we can get our introductions out of the way later. Right now all you need to know is that we're on your side. Now let's haul tail!" said the dragoness rather quickly.

Before Spike could even blink he felt a rush of air and found that they were now standing in front of an unconscious Saphria, who the red dragon picked up and hung over her vacant shoulder.

"Oh and before you ask, my aura gives me super speed. NOW LETS-"

"WAIT! What about the others? They're still all out there!" Spike protested.

"Oh you don't gotta worry about them Crystal has their backs."

"Crystal? Who the heck is CrystaAAAAAA!" Spike screamed as the dragon began to dash forward, turning their surroundings into nothing more than a blur of colors, leaving behind a cloud of dust in their wake.

* * *

The others outside hadn't been doing too well.

In an urban environment with very little plant life had left Connor more than powerless and applejack easily knocked him down when he couldn't get to his seed bag.

Yam was the next to go as the ponies constantly bumping into her kept throwing of her focus and Twilight managed to neutralize her with a flame spell.

Now it was just down to Griffith who was barely holding his ground with a small forcefield that acted as a shield and a laser pistol; but even he knew that he was fighting a losing battle against the ponies.

The mane six kept inching closer and closer to him as he kept firing shots that kept on missing (he wasn't exactly the best shot on the Vlemm enclave) and if things couldn't get any worse the gun burst into flames in his hand forcing him to drop it

Seeing that the technowizard was now defenceless, Fluttershy rushed the poor guy and sacked him; forcing him to the ground with his arms behind his back.

"I have you now you big meanie!" said the animal lover "any last words?"

If anypony had been paying a bit more attention they'd have noticed that Griffith wasn't looking at Fluttershy at all and instead was gazing at a building on the end of the street, specifically the roof. If anypony had followed his gaze they would have seen a lone figure positioned on said rooftop with a drawn bow and arrow ready to fire. If anypony had been looking at that figure they would have seen them fire the arrow and watched it fly through the air.

But nopony aside from Griffith was watching so they were all caught completely off guard when a blue arrow with a fat tip landed dead center in the crowd. Before anypony could utter 'what the buck?' the arrow exploded into a sickly green gas that swallowed up the town square.

Griffith was familiar with the gas, he had helped make it after all. It was a specially designed tear gas, harmless to dragons but extremely effective against all other species. Which is why he was easily able to kick Fluttershy off of him as she was too busy coughing and trying to get the tears out of her eyes to keep him pinned, the same went for the rest of her friends and the innocent bystanders unlucky enough to get caught in the blast.

Griffith also knew exactly who had fired that mysterious arrow, after all there was only one dragon he knew who was that good with a bow; Crystal, seems that the cavalry had arrived.

"RIDE'S HERE GUYS! MOVE OUT!" shouted Griffith.

The three of them emerged from the gas cloud and soon slipped away under all the confusion, local law enforcement was too busy trying to calm down the riot that had now broken out downtown to even attempt to stop them and the mane six had been totally incapacitated.

They had ducked into a nearby alleyway when the figured hopped down in from of them.

"Sorry for being late to the party, traffic was a nightmare. But at least I made sure you all had a GAS." said the figure.

"I never thought I'd be so happy to hear one of your puns crystal. Where's the ship?" asked Griffith.

"Only a half mile from here, we'd better get moving before those ponies CATCH WIND of what we did" Crystal said, motioning for them to follow.

Within minutes they had arrived at an abandoned apartment building, nopony was left to stop them so the jaunt was quick and easy. The red dragon, Spike, and Saphria (who was now recovered) were waiting for them on the roof.

"Gee about time you slow pokes got here. I was starting to get bored" said the red dragon

"Hey don't blame me for wanting to get the money SHOT" replied Crystal. "But I think we've HIT THE TARGET for our chaos quota today so let's not dawdle anymore."

Right as she said that a massive airship appeared above the building, seemingly materialized out of nowhere. Another dragon waiting at the top tossed down a ladder and immediately the group began to climb up to their salvation.

The dragon waiting for them gave a relieved smile to each and every one of them as they got on top of the ship until spike came; then the dragon's smile turned into an unimpressed frown.

"You? You're the legendary artair I've heard so much about?" he said with a slight snark.

"Yeah?" replied spike.

The dragon looked him up and down, his glare hardening "I imagined you'd be taller and a whole lot more impressive for a dragon who not only survived the gauntlet of fire unscathed but also took down sombra. I mean you're a little-"

"DYLAN! NOW REALLY ISN'T A GOOD TIME!" shouted saphria.

"Alright alright, let's blow this dump of a town." said the dragon known as Dylan grabbing the vessel's wheel, fiddling with a few switches on the command console

The airship began to climb higher and higher into the sky, soon disappearing behind a set of clouds away from prying eyes.

Meanwhile back on the ground, the gas cloud had finally dispersed and Twilight managed to regain her sight. Looking around she saw that all of the dragons they had managed to corner had completely disappeared, likely slipped away under all the chaos. Not only that but she could see that the press had arrived on the scene to cover the disaster and would likely be asking numerous questions about what had just transpired which was a nightmare in itself. Combine that with the pain in her throat and in her eyes left Twilight with only one thing left for her to do.

The princess took in a deep breath and shouted in frustration to the heavens in her royal Canterlot voice:

"CELESTIA BUCKING DARN IT!"


	6. kings and queens

"Princess Twilight, can you tell us what happened in Baltimare?!"

"Who were those dragons?!"

"How is Spike the brave and glorious involved?!"

"Are they still on the loose?!"

"What do you have to stay about the riot in the center of town?!"

"Is it true Fluttershy is a lesbian?!"

Twilight promptly slammed the doors of the hospital room directly in the faces of all the over zealous reporters.

Originally the plan was to comb the city to see where those dragons had run off to but the screams of pain from Rainbow Dash and Rarity along with a Pinkie Pie covered in lacerations forced them into a trip to a hospital. Apparently both Dash and Rarity were so close to the origin of the gas cloud that it blinded both of them, thankfully the doctors said it was only a temporary affliction and they would recover within a few hours; but that was still a few hours that those dragons had to gain distance on them.

To make matters worse, regardless of whether or not they came out to the papers this would still be front page news all over Equestria and when ponies found out that there were some rogue dragons running around loose somewhere it would be utter bedlam.

'Celestia is going to kill me for this' thought Twilight

Pinkie Pie was just sitting on her bed, covered in bandages, stewing in her own anger. She came so close, Spike was in her grasp and then this new dragon comes out of nowhere and knocks her silly before she could say 'suffering sasparillas'. Now Spike was gone again and all she had to show for it was a bunch of bandage covered boo-boos. If she wasn't ticked off before she sure was now.

Next to her was Rainbow Dash, a long bandage wrapped around her eyes. Like Pinkie Pie, the athlete was grumbling to herself about their failure. Not only was she stricken blind by some weird gas but she had been denied the rematch against that jerk ninja; if there's one thing Rainbow Dash hated more than anything else it was losing and the fact that she was 0 for 2 against these punks drove her nuts.

"Wonderful, just wonderful" said Rarity, her tone heavily sarcastic "we've lost Spike and those dragon brutes. All of Equestria is going to see us as completely incompetent ponies and now I've lost my most useful tool as a designer! This is the worst possible-"

An orange hoof slamming into the white mare's lips silenced her

"If ya finish that sentence ah swear ta Celestia ah'm gonna slap you" Said Applejack

"Well it's really true this time! I cannot see any feasible way our situation could worsen any further! As a matter of fact I CAN'T SEE ANYTHING!" shouted Rarity, flailing her hooves about like an overly excited frog puppet.

* * *

 **Meanwhile in the dragon lands**

Ember was calmly sitting on her throne, enjoying a nice fat emerald. It had been one of those rare days where absolutely nothing was happening in the dragon lands that required her attention. Day in and day out it was dealing with schoolyard disputes of dragons stealing from each other, doing incredibly stupid stuff (why would a dragon ever try yanking on the tail of a sleeping hydra?!), or simply some young dumb lizard who thought they could fight and challenged her only to get curb stomped immediately. But for once she had gotten a day where it was completely silent and she was going to take full advantage of it.

"PRINCESS EMBER! PRINCESS EMBER!" shouted one of her subjects.

Well so much for a quiet day….

The lanky green dragon skidded to a stop at Ember's feet, bowing down to her in a show of respect.

"What is it now? Are Garble's friends trying to kill each other again? Or did some dragon blow up a mountain?" Said Ember

"No my lord. I come with news from our allies in Equestria."

That confused Ember; while the dragon lands had been more connected to Equestria than ever in recent years, it was out of the ordinary to receive any urgent news from them. Even more so for the princess of friendship or any of her friends to not deliver it in person.

"Equestria? What's happening there that concerns us?" Replied Ember

"It's the Equestrian ambassador Spike. Apparently he had run off from home a week ago and was last spotted traveling with some unknown dragons in one of the pony cities where they sparked a riot!"

Ember's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. Spike ran away from home last week?! Why didn't Princess Twilight or Starlight tell her about any of this?! Maybe it was because Spike was having issues with them but even so, why didn't he come here or go to Thorax's hive?

"Wait you said he was traveling with other dragons. Do we know anything about them?" Asked Ember

The dragon shook his head "unfortunately no. We think they're rogues but…."

"But?"

"Well Lord Ember those dragons were using strange abilities we've never even seen before! Super speed, plant and cyromancy, high tech gadgets; these are not normal dragons." Continued the green dragon

Ember rubbed her chin in thought; this didn't quite add up.

Spike ran away from home and vanished for a week before resurfacing with some strange dragons in the middle of a pony city where they start a brawl only to vanish again. She had the where, the when, and The Who, But she still needed the why.

Luckily there was a pony who could give that to her.

"Hold tight, I have to make a visit to Equestria. I should be back soon." Said Ember abruptly taking flight out of the cave.

'I swear Twilight Sparkle had better know what the heck is going on or I'm gonna have to crack a few skulls' thought Ember

* * *

 **Around the same time in the changeling kingdom**

"And so thanks to Spike the brave and glorious, the evil King Sombra was vanquished and the crystal empire entered a new age of peace and harmony. The end" Said Thorax closing the story book, smiling at all the sleeping changeling newborns.

If Thorax had to pick one of his favorite duties as the king of the changelings, it would be spending time in the nursery taking care of the youngest members of his kingdom; playing with them, reading them stories, and generally making sure they were well loved when their parents were away.

Thorax's ears pricked up at the sound of a door creaking open, looking over his shoulder he saw one of his advisors poking his head in and making rapid motions for him to come over.

Thorax quietly shut the door to the nap room closed as he joined his advisor in the hallway.

"Aren't they just precious Wynn?" Said Thorax to the advisor known as Wynn

"Yes they are but that's not why I called you over King Thorax. We've got a problem, a big one." Said Wynn

"Another maulwurf attack?"

"Actually it's news from Equestria, involving your friend Spike."

"Spike?" said Thorax with a worried tone.

It had been no secret that Thorax was incredibly close to Twilight's assistant, he had been the first real friend he'd ever made and the best one he's ever had. True they hadn't been able to hang out as much as they used to now that he was the changeling king but he always tried to make time for him. Hearing that his dragon buddy was having problems back home instantly prompted a protective reaction from the shapeshifter.

"Yes, it appears he's…..run away from home." said Wynn

"WHAT?!" shouted Thorax, threatening to wake up the babies on the other side of the door.

"Yes, he was missing for about a week before he finally showed back up in a city called baltimare. When the elements of harmony confronted him they found that he was traveling with some other dragons too."

"Friend's of Ember?" asked Thorax

"Doubtful, as far as I know dragons from the dragon lands breath fire and not ice. Not to mention they don't have super speed or have the ability to control plants." said Wymm

"Really? They did all that?"

"Oh it gets worse, apparently they unleashed some sort of gas in the middle of town and started an all out brawl; all of them slipped away under all the confusion. Their current location is unknown." finished Wymm.

Thorax was silent, holding a blank expression. Then without a word he turned around and walked away.

"Thorax? Where are you-"

"Ponyville. Princess Twilight has an awful lot of explaining to do" replied Thorax in an unnaturally firm tone that made a chill travel down Wynn's spine; he'd never heard Thorax speak with such a serious manner.

'And those dragons had better not be hurting Spike.' thought Thorax.

* * *

 **On the airship at…..well you get the idea.**

"Aaand there. The autopilot has been engaged, we're all set now." said Griffith.

"Great" said Saphria, "so how long until we reach the Vlemm enclave?"

"Well our cruising speed is about 95 knots, we don't want to get any unwanted attention, so we should be at the Vlemm enclave in a few days." replied Griffith.

"Great! That'll give us all plenty of time to hang out!" said the red dragon with enthusiasm. She then turned to look directly at Spike "and get to know each other better, wink wink."

"Maybe for you" said the yellow dragon. "Me? I've got better things to do." he began to walk of only for the blue dragon to grab him by the arm

"Now Dylan don't be rude, this is the lost prince of the Vlemm enclave; I seriously doubt gorging yourself on gems and reading romance stories counts as 'better things'" she said

"THAT WAS A ONE TIME THING!" yelled the yellow dragon.

"Sure, just like the seventy-five other times I caught you but we're getting off topic here." replied the blue dragon.

The dragon in question was a rather deep blue, like a colder ocean, scales and eyes alike except for her claws which were a lighter shade; a simple lizard-like tail protruding out of her lower back and her upper back adorned a set of wings the same shade of blue; the top of her head had several curved spikes making up her fin that ran down her back; she wore a set of cargo pants with multiple pockets and a hoodie that matched the shade of her scales, along with an arrow set draped over her back; crystal's most distinguishing featured had to be the black scales around her eyes, appearing almost like a mask.

She walked up to spike and held out her hand in a show of friendship "the name's Crystal squirt, Vlemm enclave's resident archery and comedy expert; my aura makes me a master with the bow and arrow, if you can point out a target I can hit it."

Spike grabbed ahold of her hand only for a loud fart sound to erupt out of seemingly nowhere, pulling her hand back Crystal revealed a whoopie cushion strapped to it.

"HA! Fell for the old 'whoopie cushion in the hand' trick. Classic!" said Crystal through giggles "but seriously though I'm a nice gal once you get to know me." she then turned to the yellow dragon and gave him a rough shove forward.

"C'mon Dylan, don't be a sourpuss nobody likes those."

This dragon had neon yellow scales covering his body, a pale yellow underbelly and a bundle of golden spikes running across the top of his head like slicked back hair, red irises fixated into a glare; his tail was similar to that of Saphria's, thick and long with a thin pointed spade at the end; two large wings decorated his back, smooth and powerful in appearance; he was dressed in a pain of worn out jeans and a tattered white dress shirt that had the sleeves torn off at the elbow, a similarly messy tie in a dirty yellow hung from his neck

Dylan grumbling under his breath and looked down at spike "in case you didn't already figure it out my name's Dylan. One of the top ranking guards on the Vlemm enclave and the most trusted one by far; my aura let's me control light, I can shoot out focused beams to fry my enemies or create large flashes to blind them, not to mention light balls that explode upon impact and I can move at the speed of light for short bursts. But anyways your parents entrusted me with getting you and everyone else home safely, no matter what; honestly though if I wasn't their best guard I don't see why I'd have to waste my time with a twerp like you." said Dylan "you've been around ponies for so long it's made you soft and weak, barely any trace of Frinad and Layla left in you."

Griffith slapped Dylan's arm "oh give him a break, he's still my brother and I won't have you talk down to him like that."

"Whatever, I'm done here." said Dylan, walking deeper into the ship

"Wow, talk about rude." said the red dragon "but back to business, we've saved the best for last: my name's Mia! The fastest and friendliest dragon alive!" she said, picking up spike like a stuffed toy "it's a pleasure to meet you and I can already tell we're gonna be the best of friends! The very best! Like nobody ever was!"

Before Spike could get another word out, he found himself completely deprived of all oxygen as Mia squeezed him in a tight hug; it felt like she was crushing his bones. He tried to struggle away from her embrace but it was no use, this dragon had an iron grip on him.

Thankfully for Spike, Connor tapped Mia on the shoulder and said "uh Mia, I know you think the little dude is cute and all. But I'm pretty sure his scales aren't supposed to turn that shade of purple." the remark caused Mia to finally release Spike, who took in a deep breath of air and hacked up some of the spit that built up in the back of his throat.

"Whoops! Got carried away there, sorry Artair!" Mia said before slinging Spike over her shoulder "Idea! How about we pass the time by you telling me all about your adventures in Equestria? No detail spared! Come on it'll be fun!"

Spike looked over to his younger brother with a pleading look, begging him to save him from this hyperactive dragon. Nodding in understanding, Griffith walked over and grabbed ahold of Mia's wrist causing her to look back at the mechanic in confusion.

"Look I'm sure that Artair would love to talk about himself for hours on end Mia but I think it'd be a better idea for me to show him to his room aboard the Violet Dawn." said Griffith only for Spike to look at him in confusion "it's the name of the ship bro.

Mia reluctantly put Spike down on the floor where he immediately hid behind Griffith, "alright, I'll leave him alone for now. But don't think I'm letting this go mister! I'm getting those stories out one way or another" Mia then proceeded to turn around and hop down one of the corridors into the rest of the ship

"She seemed nice-ish" said Spike "her and Pinkie Pie would probably have been best friends."

"Who?"

"Pinkie Pie. You know that angry pink pony that chased us back in baltimare? Mia acts a lot like her, apart from the fact that Pinkie tends to overreact to certain things."

"Actually Mia isn't always this nice either" said Griffith as he lead spike down into the bowles of Violet Dawn "she usually is and has a pretty long fuse but when she reaches her limit well….let's just say that even dad is scared of her. Oh look we're here!"

The two were stopped in front of a large metal door with the keypad hooked up to in. Griffith quickly punched in the code '10102010' into in and the door immediately slid upwards revealing a bedroom that was closer to a workshop. One side of the room held an intricate work bench with numerous tools strewn atop it, more than half of which looked completely alien to Spike,; piles of scrap metal and parts littered the floor and larger pieces were mounted on the walls alongside what Spike could only assume to be bigger tools; another wall had a shelf holding several bins that no doubt contained even more parts and shoved next to the work bench were several rolls of blueprints. The otherside of the room was neater but not by much, this time scraps of trash littered the floor rather than metal; a dirty old bunk bed was set up against the wall with the bottom bunk being a complete and utter wreck while the top bunk was still neat and tidy; a small strange looking lamp sat on the nightstand right next to an empty closet housing only a few lone hangars. The overall feel of the room was rather cluttered and chaotic.

"Yeah, we didn't actually have a room set aside for you on the ship." said Griffith awkwardly "so I hope you don't mind bunking with your little brother for a bit."

"Please, after spending most of my life with an OCD bookworm this'll be a breath of fresh air. I call top bunk!" replied Spike.

"All yours big bro. Anyway I'd better tell Mia to get started on dinner, she's actually a pretty good cook. Just wait in here and do whatever, as long as you don't touch my workbench; seriously that stuff is dangerous."

"Wait" said Spike

Griffith turned back around to see his little big brother sitting on the top bunk, twiddling his claws like a nervous hatchling.

"Could we...could we just talk for a little bit? We haven't really gotten any one on one time since we started this whole trip." said Spike

Griffith smiled in response and pulled a chair up next to the bed "of course Artair, I'll always have time for family; so what do you wanna know?"

"Well, you really. I wanna hear about what it was like for you on the Vlemm enclave, what you do there and stuff."

"Ooh that's a tough one. For starters, I wasn't treated like royalty here in Equestria; sure every dragon on the enclave knew who I was and gave me a bit more respect than the average dragon but they never put me on a pedestal like they do with the princesses and the same went for mom and dad; they weren't gods, they were just noble dragons like the rest of us. So I had a pretty normal childhood, running around all starry eyed without a care in the world! But that came to an end when I discovered my aura"

Griffith motioned to the workbench behind him "a technowizard they called me: I could build anything and fix anything involving tech or mechanics, a true prodigy. But it wasn't as good as one would think" he said, his mood starting to darken "I learned the true meaning of the saying 'ignorance is bliss', when I unlocked my aura I was completely overwhelmed with the amount of information that came at me all at once: blueprints, schematics, electricity, and many other things of mechanical variety flooded my brain; I was curled in a fetal position crying for a whole week while my youthful brain tried to process it all, it was an utter nightmare. But when the haze finally cleared, inspiration was laid bare and I got to work on my first and greatest invention."

Griffith walked over to the night stand and pulled out a strange looking cube, it had a series of circles and intricate lines covering all but one of it's faces the last one had a single large glass screen on top of it.

"This" said Griffith, lightly tossing the device in his hand "is a father cube, a handheld supercomputer that can accomplish amazing things beyond even unicorn magic."

Tapping the large circle on one face, a hologram suddenly appeared with several icons floating in midair, tapping one Griffith pulled up a digitized bookshelf.

"I can store thousands of different texts in this little guy, each organized and cataloged however I see fit and accessible at any time"

Closing out of that he pulled up another icon that had a series of photographs on it.

"It also can serve as a camera that takes pictures in near perfect quality, leaps and bounds ahead of the cameras ponies have"

Tapping the glass screen again, Griffith caused the hologram to shut back down.

"And that's just the tip of the iceberg, this device is capable of dozens of different functions and is powered by a limitless magic source that will never run out. Every dragon on the Vlemm enclave has one of these and has made their lives so much better because of it. After that I was the go to guy for whenever something needed fixing, sure I may have peaked a bit early with my first invention but I still keep trying to improve the tech itself along with all my other pet projects."

"Like what?"

"Well we're in one of them right now, I designed the Violet Dawn from the ground up and helped build most of it; not only is it the fastest, sturdiest, and most efficient airship ever built but it has dozens of cloaking devices and weapons all built by me to make this the greatest airship of all time, nothing else comes close" Griffith raved

"Wow"

"Tatarus yes wow. This baby is my pride and joy, I poured my heart and soul into making this thing perfect; sure the father boxes bettered life for everyone on the enclave but this just feels like I built a part of me into this ship. Funny how I used to view my aura as a curse but seeing my work laid out like this, it makes it come off as a gift even with the burden of knowledge." said Griffith with a smile on his face "but enough about me, tell me about you Artair; if I'm not mistaken I know very little about my own brother too."

"Well it all started several years ago when I was still stuck in that egg our parents lost…."

Soon enough the two brothers were chatting away like they'd never been seperated in the first place; going on and on about their respective escapades. All the while they were completely unaware of the conversation happening deeper in the ship.

"So none of you told him, right?" said Dylan laying on his bed

"No, Frinad made it very clear we are not to tell the prince about that." replied Saphria who was leaned up against the door.

"Good good, I was worried that Griffith or Connor might let artair's role in our clan's future slip. Are you sure it's him? The one foretold in the prophecy?" asked Dylan

"It's either him or Griffith, do you really think that gear head is going to be the one to defeat...him?" Saphria replied with a shudder "even with his power armor there is no way he could get that strong."

"Fair point, Artair just seems a bit too small to be 'lord and savior' material but that's just me. When are we going to tell him though? it's not like we can keep this from him forever."

"When his training is complete and he's reached the zenith of his power, only the will we tell him what he has to do to ensure that the clan and by extension, the world, will go on to prosperity. I just hope by that time he'll be ready to take on the massive burden that fate has stuck him with."

Dylan nodded in response and sat up "well I'd better tell Mia to get started cooking, does steak sound good tonight?"

"Sure but uh, you might want to tell her to double up on Connor's veg meal; apparently Spike doesn't eat much meat either." replied Saphria

With that Dylan walked off to find the red dragon in question, leaving Saphria in silent contemplation.

'Hard to believe that artair is going to be the one to take that monster down when he returns. Or at least I hope he is, otherwise the whole world is heading for a dark future.' thought Saphria.


	7. welcome to your nightmare

The dream realm.

A place between space and time where the impossible becomes possible; where a creature can live out their greatest fantasies or be confronted by their worst fear, where their entire subconscious mind is laid bare and yet be incredibly vague in the description of such thoughts. Made up off the collective minds of all living beings who lay down to rest.

Luna, the princess of the moon and by extension the night, had full dominion over this realm as its guardian. It was her duty to ensure that all of her subjects were protected from the darkness that grew within the dreamscape: nightmares, a darkness that digs deep into the subconscious mind and pulls out each creatures' very worst fear and brings it to life. Luna was to combat this menace by teaching her subjects how to fight back against their phobias or if the need arose, as with the tantabus, deal with it herself.

But tonight all was calm in the dream realm, all of her subjects were blissfully asleep and in beautiful fantasies. But that didn't matter to Luna, she was concerned with finding one individual in particular: her nephew.

Every night since his disappearance she has been searching the dreamscape for his door, a small wooden one with a smaller wooden green flame marking it. But night after night the search yielded nothing, as if some unseen force was hiding it from her. Recently she had found that there was indeed an interference in the dream realm, luckily she had figured out a way to sneak past it and continue forth on her quest.

After passing numerous doors she paused and let out a gasp at the one floating away from all the others: it was his door, the one she had been looking for.

But the strangest thing happened when she reached for it, the door suddenly darted away from her like a wounded animal. As she approached it further, it only continued it's retreat as if it had a mind of its own.

"What is this?!" said Luna as she flew after the door to her nephew's mind.

Suddenly, after a long winded chase, the door vanished in a black smoke; that was the moment Luna realized something was very wrong.

Almost instantly the temperature around Luna dropped to a deep chill, an eerie feeling running up her spine, as if she was being watched. She turned around to try and retrace her steps back to the other doors only to find that a deep darkness now surrounded her. Any and all attempts to magically light her way proved fruitless as the shadow seemed to go on for eternity.

"My my, so you've finally arrived!" said a voice "I'm rather impressed you managed to get past my cloak of the fog."

Turning around Luna saw that a dragon roughly the size of a teenage welp stood before her, dressed in black robes and surrounded by some sort of strange mist. For some reason this dragon made her feel incredibly uneasy.

"Halt! Stand and unfold thyself dragon!" shouted Luna.

"Straight to the point eh? Well I suppose it is rather rude of me to not give a proper introduction, I am Cobalt. Hailing from the Vlemm enclave, I am the advisor to king Frinad and queen Layla, as well as a master of the dream realm like yourself." replied the dragon with a smile that was just a bit too wide.

"And what is your business here?" asked Luna

"Isn't it obvious? I'm acting as a standing guard to prince Artair's subconscious mind, keeping troublesome ponies such as yourself from sticking their noses where they don't belong. Which brings me to my next point: abandon your search for your so-called nephew's mind or there will be dire consequences not only for you but for your subjects as well." said Cobalt with a rather off putting politeness in his tone

Luna blinked her eyes in bewilderment, she had never come across a whelp so bold and yet so arrogant; how dare he threaten her! She was princess Luna, an immortal alicorn over one-thousand years old! She controlled the night and everything in it and yet this lizard believes he can delegate her orders?!

"Who are you to command me you snide whelp?!" said Luna, her rage building.

"First of all, calling me a snide whelp is rather impolite; there is no need for that Luna, I am attempting to be the bigger creature and discuss this matter in a civil manner. Secondly, to answer your question, a creature whose power can match your own; so if you decide to press forward don't think even for a moment that I will not make good on my threat." answered Cobalt, still maintaining his well-mannered air.

That was the tipping point, Luna wasn't going to be talked down to by a creature such as this; one who thinks that they are just as powerful if not more so that her. Not to mention he was actively keeping her from finding her nephew.

Luna began to charge up her horn, preparing to blast this arrogant dragon to oblivion. "I shall enjoy showing you your place in this world dragon."

Cobalt merely shrugged at the princess of the night and stood his ground. "Very well then, have at thee princess."

A beam of light shot out towards Cobalt, but to Luna's utter shock the dragon vanished just before the spell could hit him.

"Coward. Using the shroud of darkness to hide yourself, come forth and face me!" Luna shouted in the royal canterlot voice.

She was swiftly met with a loud rumbling sound in response. It was if the entire realm was shaking all at once, threatening to tear itself apart. With a loud boom the darkness finally cleared up, only to give way to a whole new nightmare.

Nothing but fire surrounded her on all sides, an inferno that could match even Tatarus in terms of strength; her realm was burning and there was nothing she could do to stop it. But what really caught her attention was Cobalt as it was rather hard to ignore him now.

The dragon now stood at nearly two-hundred hooves tall, his calm face replace by one much more demonic; his eyes burned pure white, his mouth lined with hundreds of razor sharp teeth, the spines on his head elongated to the point where they resembled the horns of a devil, and his claws were more akin to jagged knives.

"You may be the queen of dreams Luna!" boomed Cobalt "but I am the lord of all nightmares! And you have just entered your best one!"

Before Luna could get out another word, Cobalt clapped his hands together atop the princess of the night as if he was swatting a fly. Thankfully one of the benefits of being a one-thousand year old alicorn was increased durability, which was the only reason that she wasn't reduced to a fine paste.

Forcing his hands apart with a shield spell she began to engage the goliath. But it was fairly clear that he was controlling the fight, he even began to sing as he battled her.

"I will destroy you, shatter your worldview, crush your pathetic dreams! Because I am smarter, you're just a martyr, now let me hear you scream!" belted out Cobalt as he summoned up several large crystals black as night and began to fire them at the princess.

Luna was soon forced on the defensive as she flew around, trying to avoid the flurry of projectiles. Despite her best efforts the dragon managed to clip her a few times but she was far from seriously injured; seeing a window of opportunity she fired at Cobalt's face…..only for the projectiles to bound off.

The psychotic laughter that soon followed would haunt her for the rest of her days.

"Oh you'll die for nothing" sang Cobalt as he swung his massive fists at the lunar princess, trying to swat her again. "Tearing you apart, what fun that'll be! Cry all you want miss, I'll just enjoy it, making you twist and squirm! You live in denial, I'll make you watch while, everything you love BURNS!"

This time Luna managed to avoid his assault due to there being only two obstacles to avoid and she fired several, more powerful, blasts at the dragon during his assault; that time he flinched slightly.

"You know I fought several magic users like you in the dream realm in a situation just like this, they screamed in fear as I took their powers, just as you will. Wanna hear them, WANNA HEAR!?" screamed Cobalt.

Out of nowhere Luna felt an unseen force drag her down to what was left of the ground, she regained her bearings just in time to see a large shadow loom over her. Looking up Luna saw that Cobalt was now trying to step on her, she barely managed to dodge out of the way of his massive foot. Then the yells of agony began to echo around her.

"Listen they're shrieking, what little weaklings, dance to my puppet strings! I'll use their power, this final hour, service to their new king!" sang Cobalt as he continued to chase Luna.

Right then the force released her and Luna quickly flew back up into the air to avoid being squashed, unfortunately what awaited her above wasn't much better: zombified pegasi, they quickly darted at her with supernatural speed, teeth gnashing, wanting to take a bite of her flesh. Luna began desperately blasting them away, trying her best to suppress the fear that was rapidly clawing at her back.

"Am I too vicious? Oh how delicious! Let's try another game! The rules are simple, it's kill or be killed, fight back or you'll be maimed!" chanted Cobalt as he kept throwing zombies at princess Luna.

Letting out a war cry, Luna powered up her horn and unleashed a large shockwave blast that not only vaporized all of the undead but also landed a decisive strike against Cobalt who visibly grunted in pain.

But his crazed smile soon returned and black fire spewed out of his mouth, aimed directly at Luna who quickly dodged the bombardment but she could feel the heat quickly gaining on her.

"Clipping at the seams, of your hopes and dreams, unstitch the tapestry. There's no bigger story, only the glory, of my calamity!" crooned Cobalt through his firebreath.

Right as the fire began to lick away at Luna's tail, she fired a counter spell into Cobalts mouth that abruptly cut off the fiery assault and made the overgrown lizard start hacking. Luna then began to lob several magical bombs and the stunned dragon all of which made notable impacts against him.

Quickly shaking off the blows, Cobalt began to fire back at Luna; plumes of black smoke erupting from his hands that began to converge on the princess, encapsulating her completely and suffocating her.

"I've got the power, the world I'll devour, then make it all anew! Endless destruction, that is my function and it's all thanks to you" echoed Cobalt's voice through the fog.

Gaining her strength, Luna drew on the power of her subjects dreams and dispelled the cloud of smoke. Only to immediately wish she had let it smother her when she saw what Cobalt was throwing at her now.

Nightmare Moon, with a hungry look in her eye.

Luna had never fully forgiven herself for what she did all those years ago, even though her sister and her subjects have. The one thing she always feared was a relapse into that old persona, one that she couldn't break out of. Seeing the personification of her past failure as a sister, standing in front of her in such a way left her completely paralyzed with fear.

The demon pony took full advantage of her good half's stupor and charged with an intent to kill; Luna quickly regained her senses and flew away from her dark side only for Nightmare Moon to begin chasing her. Soon enough the two were locked in an all out magic duel, casting dozens of spells in hopes of getting an edge over their opponent but being the same pony the two ended up locked in a stalemate while Cobalt's voice kept traveling on the wind.

"This game is ending, timelines I am rending! Everything that I've done culminates in this run! But when everything's through, I could not predict you! Time for celebration of my determination! Ending this oration with your extermination! I'll be filled with such joy when everything's destroyed!"

It was at that moment Luna realized what Cobalt had been doing this entire time, he said he was a master of nightmares at the start of the fight. If that was true then he had been drawing power from the darkness that spawned nightmares themselves which feed off fear, as her panic grew so did Cobalt's power and this summated in the manifestation in front of her; her worst fear, Nightmare Moon. But that's all it was, manifestations and illusions, none of it was real. She'd just have to find the real Cobalt…..

"THERE!" shouted Luna, seeing a glint in the shadows, firing a powerful bolt out.

The blast caught Cobalt completely off guard and struck him right in the chest, breaking his concentration along with the illusions he had formed. The fires were quickly snuffed out and Nightmare Moon vanished along with Cobalt's demonic form, leaving his original form in its place.

"Heh heh heh, clever girl" Cobalt said through coughs as he slumped to his knees "finally caught onto my little tricks?"

"I must admit, drawing on the power of fear to was quite clever not to mention effective. But it was not enough to defeat me." said Luna. "Now tell me where you've hidden my dear nephew's dream door."

"Oh please. Do you really think I'd be foolish enough to risk everything on a duel with you? I still have one final trick up my sleeve." Cobalt replied.

Cobalt snapped his fingers, but nothing seemed to occur.

"What did thou-"

Then the screaming started.

This wasn't like the fake illusionary scream he had created earlier, these were real screams and Luna recognized them all too well: they were from her subjects.

"See Luna, while you were busy getting past the barrier I had set up. I was worming my way into the dreams of every single pony in equestria setting up roots everywhere I went, now with the snap of my fingers I can cause every single one of your subjects to enter their very worst nightmares that digs deep into their darkest fears. The best part is that I've hidden said roots deep within each of their minds which makes finding them next to impossible." said Cobalt.

Luna couldn't stand it, thousands of screams coming from all over equestria, from the youngest foal to the oldest pony, their screams were like nails on a chalkboard to the princess and she was utterly helpless to do anything about it. This was a whole new level of torture for her

"STOP IT! FOR FAUST'S SAKE STOP! THEY DON'T DESERVE THIS!" screamed Luna.

"Oh I'll stop, on one condition; you stay away from Artair's mind until I say otherwise, no more searching for it and no more attempts to use his mind to locate him. In return I will not only turn off the nightmares that now plague your subjects but I will also refrain from entering your realm until you say otherwise or you fail to uphold your end of the deal. Should you go back on your end of the bargain, I will ensure that not a single pony will ever sleep well ever again. Do we have an agreement?" said Cobalt.

Luna grit her teeth. She had been locked into an impossible choice: save her nephew or spare thousands of innocent ponies from endless nightmares, her duty as an aunt or her duty as a princess? The screams around her, growing louder, quickly helped her make a decision.

Letting out a sigh of defeat Luna glared up at Cobalt and muttered "you have a deal."

"Good mare." replied Cobalt, snapping his fingers which silenced all the screams at once. "I know it must have been a tough decision but you've made the right decision."

"Buck you." spat Luna.

"No need for profanity, I tried to be civil luna but you refused; you have no one else to blame but yourself for this" said Cobalt, getting back to his feet. "Now before you go, remember that I will always be watching you."

Luna's eyes suddenly snapped open, she was back on her private balcony of the canterlot castle. It took about ten seconds for the weight of what had just happened to sink in: she had been defeated by a single dragon, one who was able to match her dream powers blow for blow, and who had essentially banished her from seeing her sweet little nephew ever again.

Luna sank down to a sitting position.

And started to cry for Spike.

* * *

"Next stop ponyville!" Shouted the conductor.

The mane six hadn't had a good night, if the bags under their eyes and the exhausted looks on their faces weren't enough to make that clear.

The first two days in the hospital had been normal enough, Rainbow Dash and Rarity's vision had returned on the second day and they were all set to head out after the third day once they complete a few final check ups. But that night the entire hospital woke up screaming, the elements of harmony included. It was so strange; one minute they're in a normal dream and the next minute they were plunged head first into their very worst nightmares. Applejack was yelling that sweet apple acres was burning, Rainbow Dash went on and on about a cannibalistic Pinkie Pie, and Rarity screamed when she though that she was naked and covered in mud on a fashion show runway.

The entire hospital staff ran themselves ragged trying to calm everypony down but most were too scared to fall back asleep. Meaning that none of the elements got any sleep and were completely exhausted come the next morning, even the energetic pinkie pie lacked any pep in her step.

And they weren't the only ones, everywhere they looked their were ponies who all looked dead tired; some were even acting a tad paranoid, constantly looking over their shoulders as if something was going to jump out at them.

"Man, Spike is gonna have to wait" Said Rainbow Dash. "Right now all I want to do is find a nice soft cloud and sleep the day away."

"Fer once ah agree" added Applejack "Ah've never felt this tired since ah tried to get through applebucking season all by mahself"

"Thankfully nothing's happening in ponyville today. So we all should be able to get a nice long rest" Said Twilight, following up with a yawn. "I still don't understand how an entire building of ponies could be struck by their worst nightmares all at once. Luna should have been watching over them."

"We can ponder that later darling. Right now I need my beauty sleep." Said Rarity.

As soon as the train pulled back into the station, the mane six hopped off and split up toward their respective residences, all with the intent on catching as many z's as they could.

Twilight smiled as she came up to the castle of friendship. But when she tried to open the door, it abruptly slammed open to reveal a very disappointed looking Starlight.

"Don't you dare say it Starlight. I am way to tired for an 'I told you so'" Said the princess of friendship

"Oh that's not what this is about Twilight" Starlight hissed out "there are some creatures waiting upstairs who want to have a few choice words with you."

Twilight groaned as Starlight took ahold of one of her hooves and dragged her towards the dining room, of course some delegate had to come by today to whine about their problems; she may have been the princess of friendship but she was still a pony with worldly needs. Maybe she could try to rush through this so she could go to bed.

Her train of thought came to a sudden halt when Starlight pushed open the doors to the dining room.

What Twilight saw waiting for her there was enough to bring her blood to an ice cold chill.

"Well it's about time you showed up princess" Said Ember

"Yeah! Care to explain yourself?!" Said Thorax.

"W-what are you talking about!" said Twilight.

"Oh don't play dumb." said Ember, leaping out of her chair "we heard all about what's been going on with Spike and we want answers!"

"Why would I know anything?!" sputtered Twilight, desperately trying to diffuse the situation

"Because you're Spike's oldest friend, because you spend most of your time with him, because he's YOUR assistant. Should I go on?" said Thorax.

"I-I-I-"

"Why did spike run away?!" shouted Ember

"Who are those dragons?!" yelled Thorax

"Where are they taking him?!"

"Why did they cause a brawl?!"

"What in the name of tartarus is going on?!"

Eventually the two leaders began to drown each other out, firing out question after accusation; all at the princess of friendship who felt the pressure of every single one until….she snapped.

"ENOUGH!" shouted the princess in the royal canterlot voice.

Both Ember and Thorax fell back into their seats, their intimidating statues completely and utterly lost before the steaming mad Twilight Sparkle.

The pony in question was completely red faced, desperately trying to catch the wind that had seemingly left her body.

"Enough, please….enough…" said Twilight, slowly beginning to sob as she made her descent back into her chair.

"Twilight?" said Thorax reaching out a hoof to comfort her only to have it rudely swatted away.

"Why….WHY AM I BEING TORMENTED!" shouted Twilight to the sky "WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE THIS?!"

* * *

Right as she said that, in some faraway location, Trixie Lulamoon let out a loud sneeze.

"Huh, somepony must be cursing the great and powerful Trixie again. Oh well, not as if it doesn't happen often"

The illusionist merely shrugged and got back to work on her romantic confession letter.

"Soon Starlight will know how much the great and powerful Trixie cares for her!….I hope"

* * *

Back inside of the castle, Twilight could do nothing else besides curl up into a ball and cry, there was simply too much pressure put on her at once and her legs just gave out.

Starlight took hold of the dragon and the changeling. "Give her time guys, she's had a pretty rough week"

The pair merely nodded in reply as they were led out of the dining room and twilight was left alone to regain her sanity.

'Why. why me. Why now. Why Spike?' thought Twilight as she rocked back and forth.

* * *

"You think we came on a bit harsh?" asked Thorax, suddenly taking a great interest in his hooves.

"Maybe a little….but it was justified!" proclaimed Ember "Twilight should have told us about this!"

Starlight had taken her friends down into one of the castle's many common rooms to give Twilight some space, Thorax and Ember sat next to each other on a wide couch while Starlight sat directly across from them; harboring a stone faced expression.

"She was just worried that you to would overreact." replied Starlight "kinda like you are right now."

Ember recoiled at that accusation "we are not overreacting! Spike is Bahumut knows where right now! with some dragons no creature has ever seen before!"

"And your first course of action is to start interrogating Twilight like she's a criminal. Do you have any idea how hard this has been on her?" said Starlight.

"W-well…."

"I've had to act like a stay at home-mare for the past week because Twilight is so obsessed over finding Spike that she's completely forgotten to take care of herself! I have to clean up after her, make sure she eats, make sure she doesn't stay up all night, and to top it all off I have to see one of my best friends reduce themselves to a shell of their former selves!"

Ember soon imitated Thorax as she took a sudden interest in her feet.

"Spike was her very first friend she ever made, he was like a little brother to her. Can you imagine what losing a younger brother, one you loved and cared about with all your hearts, does to a pony?!"

Starlight paused to take in a breath

"But I can't say that you weren't justified in coming over. This whole affair has been one disaster after another, I figured that you guys would come over here eventually."

"Look, we're sorry about what we did to Twilight. We just wanted to make sure Spike was safe, just like she does." said thorax

Starlight just started at the changeling, after a moment she let out a sigh and walked out of the room, leaving behind two confused leaders.

A few minutes later Starlight returned with a scroll held up by her magic.

"You want answers? Here they are. But I'm only showing you these to give you a piece of mind, I really hope you don't act stubborn and hard headed like Twilight did when she read this."

She unrolled it onto the table and Spike's two favorite creatures began to scan their eyes over the well written penmanship. Each reacting in their own ways

Thorax was completely shocked, Spike really felt this way? Why didn't he say anything? He was his best friend after all! Shock quickly turned into worry, sure Spike was tough but what if those dragons were lying to him? For all he knew they could be plotting to kill him or worse...turn him evil! Based on the letter it was clear Spike wouldn't believe him at first but Thorax had to convince him, he had to save his best friend from himself.

Ember on the other hand had a completely neutral expression but her inner thoughts were anything but; this note that her crush wrote out….it was the final piece of the puzzle. Sure she had suspicious before but she merely brushed it off as paranoia, but this proved it plain and simple. She had heard stories about them but she never could have imagined that they even existed, much less still be an active entity. Her worry only grew when a second thought came to mind, if they were real then could Spike be….the lost prince? Ember shook away those thoughts, she could ponder them later, right now she had to find Spike and get him away from those dragons and make sure none of her subjects found out the truth; the truth that….

 **THEY** had returned.


	8. training day

"Uh Artair, Are you okay?" said Griffith, gazing at his little brother's position on the floor.

Spike hadn't gotten off to a good start this morning. The comforting warmth that the bunk beds had provided after a week of sleeping on cold, hard ground had tricked his body into thinking that he was resting in his own bed back home and therefore his subconscious thought there was more room on the sides where there clearly was none. All of these combined factors brought us to the here and now where Spike had rolled out of his bed and face planted onto the floor below in an almost comical fashion.

"I'm fine" mumbled Spike "this isn't the first time I've fallen down like this and it won't be the last". Spike quickly dusted himself off, knocking away some of the trash pieces that had gotten stuck to his body. "Anyway what's are we gonna do today?"

"Actually nothing, as weird as that sounds." replied Griffith, hopping out of his bed. "We've spent all week on the run like criminals, it's strange to finally get some peace and quiet for once."

"Eh who's complaining? Maybe I can catch up on some lost sleep." said Spike, stretching his arms and wings out.

"I hear that bro, which reminds me I need you to take this." said the inventor, holding out a small red pill.

"What is it?"

"Just a little something I whipped up, it'll keep anymore unwanted messages from your pony friends from coming through, don't ask me how, just know that it's perfectly safe for you."

Spike grabbed the pill out of Griffith's hands and threw it into the back of his throat, wincing slightly at the taste "tastes like old shoe rubber."

"Well how about we get some breakfast to chase that bad boy down? Mia makes a mean gem omelette."

As if on cue, a tantalizing aroma began to drift into the room, taking refuge in the brothers' nostrils. A goofy smile quickly grew on Spike's face and he began to drool, virtually hovering off the ground as he let the scent take him away. Griffith simply shook his head and laughed.

"Just like the first time I got a whiff of that stuff, no clue how Mia does it" said Griffith, following his brother down the hallway.

When they reached the onboard mess hall, the pair found that the rest of the group was already waiting for them there.

"Well look who finally decided to join the land of the living" cracked Crystal.

Griffith shot the jokester a look "hey we've had a rough couple of days, I think we've earned a few more hours of rest."

"Excuses excuses Griffith" said Dylan tossing a bit of bacon into his mouth. "But I'll let it slide if Artair here can explain himself."

"Me? What did I do? We've only talked once!" Spike said in bewilderment.

"It's not what yer doing, it's what ya ain't doing." Dylan said, holding up another pork strip "do you really think that I'm gonna accept that the son of Frinad is some veggie drake like Connor over there?"

The yellow dragon then turned to Connor "no offense of course.", the plantmancer shrugged and waved him away.

"Well so what if I don't eat meat? What's the big deal?" replied Spike.

"The only thing that's big about this is the shoes you've gotta fill, you're the lost prince of the Vlemm enclave for Bahumut's sake! If you don't eat some meat at least once in a while you'll never get the build to match yer reputation." spouted Dylan, taking another bite of his breakfast "do you really wanna be a whelp for the rest of yer life"

Saphria then slapped the back of Dylan's head hard "okay that's enough Dylan, what Artair puts inside of his body is honestly none of your business; it's his body after all."

"Hey I'm just saying, meat is an important part of a growing dragon's diet. Heck maybe that pony diet that's he's been kept on is why he's been so small all these years."

"Dylan seriously, lay off." said Connor "I never ate any meat growing up and I turned out fine. Besides it's nice to meet a dragon with the same tastes as me."

Mia then popped up out of seemingly nowhere and threw a steaming hot omlette in front of Spike, the various gems mixed in gleamed in the light.

"As long as he likes my cooking, I say let the little guy eat whatever he wants."

Yam finally pulled her gaze away from the book that she was reading to shoot Mia a look "Mia, you know that the aura that gave you lightning fast speed also gave you a metabolism to match, you could eat whatever you wanted without any negative effects; I'm not exactly sure that you are the right dragon to give dietary advice."

"Hey I never hear any complaints from you when you're stuffing your face with my fried peanut butter banana sandwiches." Mia said as she turned towards the stove.

Yam quickly averted her eyes "no comment"

After Saphria swallowed another bite of her omelette she spoke up "Dylan does have some sort of a point though."

"He does?" said Spike

"Well not about the meat of course, but about your heritage. Your family is one of the oldest families that exists on the Vlemm enclave and definitely the most well known, they were at the head of the great struggle that happened countless years ago, every dragon on the Vlemm enclave has the uttermost respect for them and consider their word to be law."

"So do we Saphria" Dylan interjected.

"Regardless, because you're their first born son you've got a lot of expectations on your shoulders, a tall legacy to live up to and all that." said the ninja "and with all the close calls we've had over the past few days we might want to consider starting your training early"

"What kind of training?"

"The one your parents are planning on putting you through, to mold you into a proper prince. Thankfully, those ponies already did half the work for us considering you've managed to befriend the changelings and those...feral you've got the diplomacy part down pat, but I'm guessing you're more of a lover than a fighter?"

Spike opened his mouth to object, to defend his masculinity if nothing else, but as he thought about it he quickly realised anything he said would only make him seem like even more of a baby like it always did with twilight and her friends. So he snapped his maw closed again as his cheeks began to burn red.

"Thought so. After breakfast meet me in the training room for your first combat lesson." said Saphria.

"But I don't-"

"Down the hall, up the flight of stairs on your right, third door on the right, don't be late." Saphria droned to the point of where it sounded rehearsed.

"I'd do what she says big bro" said Griffith "last time I tried to skip out on training she dragged me there by my tail."

Spike wanted to argue, say that he had no reason to need to defend himself from his friends; but then again this was Twilight and her friends they were talking about, they tended to be a bit aggressive when something got between them and somepony they really care about, especially Pinkie Pie, Not to mention the royal guard they would inevitably send out. Spike could run sure but not forever, in a footrace they'd catch up eventually. Mulling it over in his head for a bit, Spike decided learning a few ways to defend himself couldn't hurt.

"Alright fine, better now than later I guess." said Spike

Saphria gave a slight smile, although on her it looked more like a smirk "good to hear it. Although you really didn't have a choice in the matter, see you in a few minutes"

Saphria pushed away from the table and sauntered off into the ship, leaving Spike wondering what in the name of tartarus he has just gotten himself into.

* * *

"What in the name of tartarus have I done" groaned Starlight.

She knew showing Thorax and Ember that note was a mistake, she knew that they'd flip out when they read it, they knew that they'd be just like Twilight and she showed them it anyway. Why does she keep making bad calls like this? It always ends up makes things worse…

Right now she was galloping after Thorax and Ember as they ran back towards the dining room that Twilight was in. The moment they had finished reading the letter they had jumped up from their chairs with a look of stubborn determination that was all too familiar to here and they ran out of the room, Starlight quickly realized they were going to offer Twilight their help in tracking down Spike; naturally starlight had no choice but to run after them in an attempt to stop them from throwing more gas onto the fire. But as much as she shouted after them, they paid no attention and kept running.

Starlight let out a huff of frustration and decided for forgo common sense and just teleport in front of them at the risk of being bowled over, thankfully for Starlight the pair of royals skidded to a stop in front of her just inches away from a full on collision.

"WILL YOU LISTEN TO ME FOR ONE SECOND?!" shouted Starlight

"Are you kidding me? Are you actually going to try and talk us out of looking for Spike?!" Thorax yelled, trying to push past the former villain "what is wrong with you?!"

Starlight shoved the changeling back in retaliation "just hear me out! Then you can do whatever you want!"

For a moment the two appeared to be considering if it was worth just pushing through Starlight but decided against it. Justified or not, they'd probably break some kind of law by doing it.

"Fine, but make it quick" Ember huffed out.

Knowing that she wouldn't get into another shoving match, Starlight's stance quickly relaxed. "Thank you. Now I know you guys want to go all mother hen on him like Spike is some baby chick but we both know he's tougher than he looks." starlight turned towards Ember "I mean he won the gauntlet of fire, right?"

Ember nodded, Starlight had her there.

"And Thorax, he risked his entire reputation in the Crystal Empire to protect you. That's gotta show some level of maturity right?"

Thorax blushed, how could he forget that day. It was possibly the best day of his life so far.

"I know it may seem a bit unnerving that he would just up and leave like this but he's a big dragon on the inside, one who can make his own choices. As his friends we should respect those choices as long as he isn't in danger, those dragons may be a bit rough but it seems like they'd give their lives for each other, isn't that enough? Can't we just leave them alone?"

Ember frowned, Starlight did make a good point; several good points in fact. But….as dragon lord she still had a duty to herself, her friend, her subjects, and her ancestors. She couldn't let this go, even if she wanted to.

"Starlight, I'm sorry but even if I didn't want to chase after Spike I still have to as the dragon lord. What's happening right now is bigger than you, bigger than Spike, bigger than all of us and because of it I have to go after him."

Ember ducked past Starlight and continued on her route towards Twilight. Starlight looked back at Thorax with a pleading look, one that said 'please tell me I at least got through to you'.

"Starlight….I….I know what you mean but it doesn't change anything. Spike is my best friend, almost like a brother to me and I'd do anything to protect him. Even if he is mature on the inside he's still a baby dragon on the outside and it's too dangerous for him out there, heck for all I know those dragons could be under the control of Chrysalis, sorry Starlight but I have to do this." replied the changeling king with a forlorn expression.

Thorax then spread his wings and flew past starlight in a lime green blur, leaving the princess' protege standing in the hall all by herself.

"Oh for the love of….wait, what did Ember mean by 'bigger than me and Spike'?" starlight said to nopony in particular.

* * *

"So what are you gonna teach me?" asked Spike

After polishing off three delicious gem omelettes, somehow Mia had found the perfect balance between rubies and emeralds to make the perfect omelette, Spike had wandered his way into the training room. To be blunt, it was far more impressive than Spike expected it to be: there were at least half a dozen workout machines scattered around, dumbells that ranged from as big as his arm to twice his size, and punching bags crudely shaped to resemble several different species like griffins, yaks, ponies, and of course dragons. Saphria was standing in the center of it all, wrapping bandages around her knuckles; the dragoness had traded her ninjitsu getup for a simple scale-tight tank top and sweatpants clearly made for workouts.

"You're too small to do any real offensive damage so we'll focus more on learning how to avoid getting hit as opposed to actually hitting someone." Saphria said, tearing off the end of the gauze "I doubt that Twilight or any of her goons are going to go easy on you from now on."

"Hey I resent that! They're really nice when you get to know them" Spike said in protest

Saphria glared at Spike "getting attacked by a pegasus and beaten senseless by an earth pony doesn't exactly leave a good impression Artair, which is a shame because under different circumstances we might have actually been friends but what's done is done."

Saphria then assumed a combat stance, "first lesson is high blocks, you're gonna be using this alot against taller opponents and anyone who swings at your head."

Without any further warning, Saphria did just that. Spike yelped and narrowly managed to duck under the blow, feeling the wind off the strike pass by his head fin.

"Excellent dodge Artair, but you're supposed to block the attack not evade it."

"Well what do you expect? I've never gotten in a fight in my life!"

Saphria pinched the bridge of her nose "oh Bahumut, how did you ever win the gauntlet of fire? Alright so here's what you want to do."

The ninja kneeled down to Spike's level and grabbed one of his arms, lifting it up so that his elbow was at eye level and hand above his head.

"This this right here, when someone swings at you from above you'll want to throw your arm up like this and block it; if it helps, pretend like you're reaching onto a high shelf to grab something" said Saphria

"So like shelving at a library?"

Saphria nodded "now I'm going to swing again and this time I want you to block it, stand strong and don't doubt yourself."

Spike nodded and readied himself in a similar battle position to Saphria, repeating the words 'just like reshelving day, just like reshelving day' over and over in his head

Saphria threw out another side swipe towards Spike, to her pleasure the dragon immediately threw up his arm and caught her blow mid way in the air, stopping it dead in its tracks. Spike felt a sense of pride wash over him, he already had the muscle memory down pat (he had to remember to thank Twilight for all those hours she made him spend working the shelves in the golden oaks library), however those feelings of accomplishment quickly gave way as intense pain shot up his arm and Spike instantly clutched the limb and started shouting in pain.

"OH SWEET CELESTIA THAT BUCKING HURT! OWOWOWOW!" screamed Spike, jumping up and down.

"Wow, you are soft. We've got a lot of work ahead of us, normally I'd make you do the other arm to balance it out but you'll need at least one functioning limb to do the next exercise: escapes."

Soon enough the pain subsided to manageable levels and the baby dragon looked back up at Saphria in puzzlement.

"Basically how to get away when someone or something grabs you and let's be honest, with how small you are that's probably going to happen a lot" said Saphria.

"What? No it's not! I'm not that small!" shouted Spike

Saphria rolled her eyes at the little squirt and quickly scooped him up into her arms and held him there like a baby, before turning him around and clutching him like a hoofball, then slinging him over her shoulders in a firemans' carry, and right as she was about to put him into a piggy back position Spike spoke up.

"Alright! You made your point, you can put me down now."

"I'm afraid I can't do that Artair, you'll have to get out of this hold yourself." replied Saphria

"You're kidding right?" asked Spike, only to be met with silence "oh man you're serious aren't you?" Saphria nodded.

Spike started squirming around in Saphria's arms, trying to slip out but the ninja's grip remained ironclad on him no matter how much he struggled; in fact Saphria appeared quite bored by his efforts. But it was at that moment spike realised something, while his right arm was locked down tight, his left arm was still free to move around. Quickly coming up with a plant of attack, he karate chopped Saphria as hard as he could in her side; the teenage dragon grunted in pain and loosened her grip enough to give spike the wiggle room he needed, wrenching his arm free he pulled himself over Saphria's back and flipped over, landing on his feet with a stumble.

"Well done." Said Saphria with a smirk. "Now let's try a few more holds, then we'll take another go on defensive moves"

"Wait how long are we doing this for?"

"Until I say you can stop Artair."

After giving off a quick sigh, Spike walked back up to Saphria and allowed her to lift him off his feet once more in a different grapple.

The two went on this for a while, Saphria putting Spike into a wrestling hold and the latter trying (and occasionally failing) to escape from each one; in the times that he failed, Saphria demonstrated how he could have gotten out of it before forcing him to try again. In between that and the beatings his arms took from practicing blocks, Spike was positive this was the hardest he had ever trained in his life and the pain was nearly unbearable; but the thought of becoming stronger, the thought of being able to protect those close to him, that allowed the baby dragon to power on through.

After what seemed like an eternity Saphria dropped a panting spike to the floor and said "alright that's enough for today, you've got impressive stamina for your size"

"Thanks." Said Spike between breaths "hey Saphria can I ask you something?"

Saphria walked over with two canteens of water, opened one and handed it to Spike. "Sure fire away."

"What exactly do you do on the Vlemm Enclave?"

Saphria took a few gulps of her drink and then spoke "oh I'm a member of the Paragons."

"Paragons?" Asked spike

"Right, you never grew up on the Vlemm Enclave. Well there's essentially four levels of defense that keep order on our island as well as protect it from outside threats: the Garda, the Fórsaí, the Sònraichte, and the Paragons. The Garda are the bottom tier, acting as a police force on the enclave where they enforce the rules and laws set forth by your parents and the council, they tend to be armed with extendable bow staffs and non-lethal toxins, most of the time however they only have to settle minor disputes and force is seldom used. Next is the Fórsaí who represent our military might, while armed with traditional weapons like swords and bows that have been enchanted with our own strand of magic and being well-trained in close combat they see very little action as a whole, with the Garda holding up the law, all the Fórsaí ever do is patrol the coast line and battle the occasional sea monster. After them is the Sònraichte, they handle 'delicate' matters that only the royal family is allowed to know about, see Artair when our people were banished from the dragon lands all those moons ago, we decided that it would be in our best interests if the world simply forgot about us which is where the Sònraichte came in, they removed every last trace of us from history: books were burned, art destroyed, devices scrapped, and noisy individuals silenced, after a year it was as if the noble dragons never even existed in the first place and that suited everyone just fine, ever since then they've been making sure that neither the Vlemm Enclave or the noble dragons are re-discovered but after all we've done so far they must be hating us right now" explained Saphria, ending with a laugh that Spike returned.

"And then there's us, the Paragons; we're the newest out of the four groups but by far the most powerful, the Paragons are specially selected dragons with unique auras and skills that make them stand head and shoulders above all others and are sent out on the more dangerous missions than the other three groups, we even travel into Equestria from time to time for reconnaissance missions"

"Which is how you guys found me." Interjected Spike

"Precisely, we check up on the state of affairs in the rest of the world in case there might be anything that could threaten us and sometimes carry out covert operations when necessary. Of course a rescue mission like this is certainly a new one. Anyway, the Paragon's roster consists of eight dragons who tend to rotate as it's members age, die in duty, or simply quit and then it's the next dragon in line, except for Cobalt of course"

Saphria leaned in closer "see Artair, Cobalt has been a part of the Paragons ever since it was founded and for good reason; with his dream realm powers he could easily bring the world to his knees, thankfully he's fiercely loyal to Frinad and Layla as well as the beliefs they preach so he always holds back when using his aura but I'm getting off topic. What you need to know is that me and everyone else you've met so far are all Paragons, Yam, Connor, Griffith and Mia are the newest members while Dylan, Crystal, and I have been around longer."

"Huh, that's actually kinda cool. So you guys are like a superhero group on the Vlemm enclave?" Said Spike

Saphria rubbed her chin "when you put it like that…..I guess we are, but that brings me to my next point, something we've been meaning to tell you."

"What?" Asked Spike

"Well I'll be blunt: when we get to the enclave you're going to be reshapen in both body and mind to become the newest member of the Paragons." Said Saphria.

Spike just stared at the ninja dragon, his brain failing to create a single coherent thought after that bomb was dropped on him. Soon enough he finally managed to pull his voice out his throat and speak or rather yell

"I'M GOING TO BE WHAT?!"

"See this is why we didn't tell you earlier…"

* * *

"YOU'RE GOING TO DO WHAT?!" yelled Twilight

Moments ago the princess of friendship cried out all of the negative feelings that had built up in her body and regained her composure, only to jump in the air when Ember and Thorax burst into the dining room; she braced herself for another verbal lashing, but what they told her instead left her dazed and confused.

"I said we want to help you find spike." said Thorax.

"We know what's going on and we're willing to do whatever it takes to bring him back home." said Ember, following up.

Twilight blinked at the duo "what changed your minds? Before you were screaming at me for answers."

"Starlight showed us the note and you're right, Spike needs to come home. I know for a fact that those dragons are incredibly dangerous." said Ember

"Well it's good that you're both on board with me but there's just one problem: I have no idea how to find Spike, I've tried sending another letter to him but something keeps preventing them from going through and I can't just have the entire royal guard comb every inch of Equestria looking for him." said Twilight

"I think I might be able to help you out with that" said Ember, motioning to the dragon lord scepter. "One of the many powers of the scepter is that it can locate any specific dragon in the world as long as the user knows them by name, the closer they are to that dragon the more accurate the tracker is; Plus unlike your letters, neither Spike nor any of those dragons will even know it's happening when I do it."

Twilight's face broke out into a giddy smile "well then what are you waiting for?! Do it! I'll tell the rest of the girls to get ready to go", with that the purple alicorn ran out of the room.

Ember looked back at her staff and closed her eyes, taking deep breaths to gain focus, the staff began to glow with arcane energy that threw of sparks around her, causing the changeling king to give her a wide berth.

Then as soon as it began, the glow cut off and Ember opened her eyes.

"Got him, he's in the deserts just south of here. But…

"But what?" asked Thorax

"It's his draconic spirit, Thorax, it's beginning to fade; like he's losing touch with his roots, I don't know what those other dragons are telling him but whatever it is, it's changing him. We have to leave now, no time to wait for Twilight or the others." said Ember with concern

"Are you sure we could take them on by ourselves? You heard about what happened in Baltimare."

"Just follow my lead and you'll do fine Thorax. Besides, you took on Chrysalis right?"

Thorax gave a determined nod and the two flew out of the castle straight towards a certain small town in the desert known for it's apple orchard.

Right then Starlight came into the room, intent on trying to stop whatever crazy scheme Thorax and Ember had just fed Twilight only to see that the dining table was bare and one of the windows was empty.

"Why do I get the feeling things are going to get a whole lot worse very very soon?" said Starlight "also why do I keep talking to myself like this?"


	9. appleloosa assault

"YOU'RE GOING TO BRAINWASH ME?!" shouted Spike.

"No, I said we're going to re-shape you in….wait that does sound like brainwashing." said Saphria "let me rephrase: we're going to train you in body and mind to become a paragon, teach you the ways of our kind, make you a powerful fighter, that sort of thing. Tampering with a noble dragon's true self is a very severe crime on the Vlemm enclave."

While Spike did seem to relax at this, he still seemed a bit uneasy and Saphria quickly picked up on it.

"Listen I know that It may seem a bit off putting knowing how much you're going to change when you're reunited with your family but you have to understand that your parents only have your best interests at heart, they want to see you succeed, to fulfill the legacy you deserve. Also for what it's worth, the rest of the paragons will be behind you the whole time, every step of the way Artair, that's what friends are for right?" said Saphria in an attempt to comfort him

"We're friends?"

"Well after what happened back in that pony city, I'd say you seem like a fairly trustworthy dragon; way off from what I was expecting. So yeah, we are friends, not great friends but still friends nonetheless." replied Saphria

Spike's expression suddenly grew inquisitive "wait, what exactly were you expecting?"

"Well to be honest I expected you to be pretty much brainwashed by those ponies, turned into a slave who had no idea who he was, who he should have been; one who essentially worshiped the princesses as gods. But I was wrong, you're not a slave, you're got more grit and moxie than any other baby dragon I've met in my life which shows that your size doesn't define you Artair and I respect that."

Spike blushed at Saphria's comment "well thanks Saphria that means-"

Spike was cut off by a sudden loud grinding noise, followed up by the ship tilting to one side rather violently throwing both dragons to the nearest wall, Spike landing on top of Saphria.

Thankfully most of the exercise equipment was bolted down, except for the dumbells which went flying straight towards them. Thinking fast, Saphria wrapped her arms around Spike and used her body to shield him; several large dumbbells smacked into her back causing intense pain but she grit her teeth and held tight, she had a duty to protect prince Artair at all costs and she was going to fulfill it.

After a few minutes the ship straightened itself back out and the dumbells, along with a battered and bruised Saphria, slid back to the floor. The ninja dragon then released Spike from her grip, to her relief he was completely unharmed if a bit shaken up.

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF CELESTIA WAS THAT?" shouted Spike, still scared.

"I have no idea" said Saphria through the pain "we're still in the air and I don't hear any explosions which is a good sign. We'd better get to the bridge to check it out."

As Saphria tried to get to her feet, pain shot straight into her back like a spear causing her to stumble back down on her butt.

"Saphria? Are you alright?" asked Spike

"I'm fine I just need to- GAH!" she said trying to get to her feet again only to be forced back down by the pain.

"Saphria turn around." said Spike

"Artair-"

"TURN. AROUND." repeated Spike, this time with more force

Saphria compiled and showed her back to the baby dragon, who let out a worrying gasp. Saphira's back was completely bruised, there was more dark blue than purple covering it and a few splotches seemed to be cut open and bleeding.

"You are not okay, not even close" said Spike, completely shocked by what he was looking at.

"Is it that bad?"

"Saphria you're bleeding! There's more bruises than scales here! You need help and you need it now!" shouted Spike

Saphria gulped, if Spike wasn't exaggerating she might have broken something along with some internal bleeding; no matter how tough she seemed Saphria wasn't invulnerable, she could still be killed like all the other dragons.

Saphria swallowed her pride and spoke "Get… get Yam, she's good with medicine, she'll know what to do. I'll stay here and rest, make sure everyone else is okay too."

Spike nodded and ran as fast as his little legs could carry him down in the direction of the bridge, avoiding all the pieces of trash that had been scattered about by the ship's sudden tumble. When he arrived, Spike saw that all the other paragons were already there running around trying to figure out what went wrong. Connor being the first one to notice the baby dragon standing in the doorway.

"Artair bro! You okay?" Connor said rushing over.

"I'm fine, it's Saphria that needs help!" Spike replied.

That got everybody's attention pretty quickly.

"What?! What the bloody tatarus happened?! Where is she?!" ranted Dylan

Spike explained what happened, how she had heroically used herself as a shield to protect him from flying exercise equipment and how she completely destroyed her back in the process.

Scooping a first aid kit out of seemingly nowhere, Yam rushed down the hall without so much as another word. Spike's concerned gaze followed her, only for a hand to fall on his shoulder; looking up spike saw it's owner was Crystal.

"Hey, don't lose your head over Saphi. Yam'll take care of her, noble dragons always take care of their own after all" said Crystal.

Gone was the usual humorous tone from her voice, the serious yet calming way she set it seemed to make Spike feel better almost immediately.

"Well now that everybody's here and accounted for, let's figure out why the ship jerked to a stop like that." said Griffith.

"I think I found it!" shouted Mia from one of the control panels

The group crowded around where Mia was standing to see the issue. Which made all of them collectively facepalm.

It was the fuel meter, currently pointed at the E.

"Oh darn it." said Dylan "I knew we were forgetting something when we left the enclave."

"Whose job was it to refuel anyway?" said Mia.

Dylan and Crystal immediately turned their gaze towards the dragon in question, who soon blushed in realization.

"Oh right….my bad."

"Wait if we're out of fuel how are we still in the air?" asked Spike

"It's an airship big bro, fuel is only used for propulsion and electricity. We use helium gas to stay afloat, this isn't a plane." said Griffith. "Luckily we still have a backup generator to maintain the latter, but if we don't find some fuel soon we're gonna be sitting ducks."

"Do you know where we can find some?" said Spike

"No, but I've got a gadget that can help with that"

"Of course you do." Spike deadpanned.

Pulling out an item that looked like some sort of Y shaped scanner, Griffith began to flip several switches on the device.

"The ship runs on various gems by extracting the magical conductivity of the minerals, diamonds are the best with emeralds being the worst but still useable; all I have to do is find a sizeable deposit and…..bingo."

"Well?" said Connor "where is it?"

"Not to far from here, there's a mountain chock full of them only fifteen miles from here. Some of us will have to go down and get them" Griffith said before looking up from the device "so who's it gonna be?"

The dragon's looked at each other, as if daring the rest to step forwards and volunteer themselves.

"Well Yam and Saphria are obviously out" said Dylan "Saphi's too injured and Yam needs to tend to her."

"If they're staying then I'm staying. In case Saphria's injuries are more serious I have to make sure all the medical equipment stays online while you're gone." said Griffith.

Connor looked at the landscape out of one of the windows "I think I should stay behind too, my powers don't work too well in deserts."

"I'll go" said Spike.

"Oh no no no." said Griffith "you almost got captured last time, we can't risk that again."

"And there is no way I am getting stuck with baby sitting duty." Dylan glanced at Crystal and Mia "moreso than I already am."

"Hey I can take care of myself! Besides I've been training with Saphria all day!" argued Spike

"C'mon Dylan, let the little guy come. I've been wanting to spend some quality bonding time with the Vlemm enclave's most eligible bachelor" said Crystal

Dylan huffed "fine, but you better be able to keep up"

The yellow dragon kicked down the ladder, where it landed with a clatter on top of a nearby cliff face. Dylan took the lead climbing down while the others quickly followed suit, leaving Connor and Griffith standing by themselves in the hold of the ship.

"Connor? Do you get the feeling we've made a grave mistake or is it just me?" said Grffith

"I dunno, kinda. But little dude has like three of us protecting him, he'll be fine." said Connor.

"Yeah you're right, I guess I'm still a bit shook up after what happened in the city. One of those psycho ponies was 'this' close to me and-" before Griffith could finish his tale another one of the control panels started going off, running over Griffith grew slightly confused.

"A transmission coming in from….the Vlemm enclave?" said Griffith "who could possibly be calling us from…..oh balls."

"What? Who is it?" asked Connor.

Griffith didn't say anything, instead opting to hit a button on the panel he was standing in front of that pulled up a holographic screen; one that contained two very displeased looking dragons.

"Hi mom, dad. What's up?" said Griffith with a tone fitting that of a scared hatchling.

"Well how about we start with that little stunt you all pulled back in that pony city, hmmm?" said the female one in the most authoritative 'mom' voice of all time.

* * *

Hours.

They had been walking in the sweltering heat for hours now and the sun was already setting in the distance

But it might as well have been days to Dylan, not from the sweltering heat no; he could handle that.

But Mia….Mia was a different story.

"Wow, so you really defeated a horde of cockatrice all by yourself?" said Mia in amazement.

Despite Dylan preemptively telling the others to march forward without speaking, Mia broke the silence in less than a minute, demanding to hear stories from Spike's adventures amongst ponies, ALL OF THEM.

Naturally Spike couldn't pass up a bragging opportunity and began telling her all the stories he knew, while Mia added in her own commentary like a hatchling at storytime.

'Not surprising' thought Dylan to himself 'Mia is pretty much an overgrown hatchling. Why Frinad let her join the paragons, I'll never know'

Crystal quickened her pace so that she was walking beside Dylan and opened her mouth to speak…

"If the next thing that comes out of your mouth is a pun, you're going to be swallowing your teeth." said Dylan

"But Dylan we've been hiking for hours, give me my just DESERTS. At least we won't starve because of all the SAND WHICH is here" said Crystal "but seriously though what do you think of Artair? Is he HOT stuff, or does he come up SHORT?"

"CRYSTAL! STOP IT!" shouted Dylan.

"Okay geeze, I'll cool it. Still need to answer my question though." replied the archer, twirling one of her arrows in her fingers

"To be perfectly frank I'd say he's a disappointment." replied Dylan

"Dylan!"

"Well look at him! He's only a bit bigger than a hatchling, doesn't eat meat, and doesn't even know who Bahumut is, I swear he's more of a pony than one of us."

"Well if you could pull your head off your butt you could see that the little guy has a lot of potential, he's the son of Frinad and Layla after all." argued Crystal

"And so was Griffith and you know how he turned out." replied Dylan

"What because he blew up part of your house that one time? Dylan that was two years ago, let it slide."

"I have a right to hold a grudge over that, I had to stay with Vera that week; you know, that dragon with a creepy obsession with me?" said Dylan shuddering at the thought "I still have nightmares about that time."

"Well maybe Artair will be the responsible one right? The prophecy did choose him for a reason." said Crystal

Dylan uttered a sarcastic laugh "ah yes, the prophecy. The one where fate of the entire world rests on that twerp's shoulders, yes sir we're completely and utterly screwed."

"Really? What about the stories about how he saved the northern empire from destruction?"

"I say his part in that event was greatly exaggerated or he just got lucky. Either way if you want me to give him some respect, he's gotta prove to me that he deserves it; same as the rest of you did." said Dylan "oh thank Bahumut we're here."

The group came to a sudden stop in front of a cave that led into a rather sizeable mountain jutting out of the desert landscape, the darkness was deep and foreboding.

"Hey isn't that appleloosa down there?" said Spike

The other three dragons turned their heads in the direction that the prince was pointing to find that indeed, at the base of the mountain lied a very small and modest pony town that was bustling with life

"Well that's just great. Now we might have to deal with miners in the caves." said Dylan

"You're not going to hurt them are you?" asked Spike.

Truth be told, ever since they left Baltimare Spike has had a little nagging voice in the back of his head telling him that what they did back there to get away was seriously wrong but he ignored it because he didn't see any other way out of that situation.

"Not seriously no. see twerp-"

"It's Artair."

"Fine. see ARTAIR, noble dragons make sure to maintain the utmost discretion when making trips to equestria like this: no creatures are allowed to find out we're even here in the first place, so we stay hidden. On the off chance that we are discovered we quickly silence them to make sure they don't tell any one of the noble dragon's existence."

"Saphria told me that too. But is killing them really necessary?" said Spike

"Yeah right, very funny." said Dylan with another sarcastic expression, until he noticed the look on Spike's face "wait...you're serious? Oh that is priceless!" soon enough Dylan began to laugh.

"What? What did I say?"

Dylan was too busy laughing his head off to give an answer so Crystal did "don't you know that noble dragons only kill in dire circumstances? It's like our number one rule."

"Yeah" Mia chimed in "when we say silence we mean that we wipe their memories of them seeing us and send them on their way, it's how we did it when we went into hiding and it's how we do it now silly!"

Dylan finally stopped laughing to throw in his two bits "Artair, when we kill something we're 'removing' them, not 'silencing' them. You're more clueless than I thought!"

"OKAY, enough! I didn't know alright? Can we just get back to what we were doing" said Spike

"Of course, we don't want to keep the rest of the group waiting" said Dylan, resuming the serious look on his face "now we need to extract as many gems as we can carry so we don't have to refuel later, do it silently and stick to the shadows. We don't want to get any attention."

"Anything else sarge?" said Crystal.

"Can it with the jokes Crystal." replied Dylan.

summoning up a ball of pure light that floated above his open palm, Dylan led the rest of the group deeper into the mountains.

Unfortunately for them, none of them saw the two specks that had been flying above them when they entered the caverns, one green and one blue, that were now making their descent straight to the same entrance.

* * *

"Now " said Connor "I assure you we have a totally rational explanation for what happened back there."

"Really? So you didn't fire toxic gas into a crowd of innocent bystanders?" said Layla

"Well Crystal was aiming for those six crazy ponies, the others just kinda got in the way."

"Oh good lord…" replied Frinad. "We gave you a simple job. Retrieve our son unharmed and don't get spotted, now you've completely jeopardize our way of life not to mention brought harm to dozens of innocent ponies"

"Well we didn't have a lot of options" said Griffith "they had us all pinned down, Crystal did what she had to. Remember the promise she made?"

"Yes. of course I do, I'll never be able to forget that tragic day that another noble dragon family was split apart so violently, but regardless; harming others in such a way directly goes against the teachings of Bahumut, so expect punishments when you all return." said Frinad

"Come on! You said get him home at all costs!" argued Connor

"We said that because we trusted your judgements and clearly we were in error to do such a thing." replied Layla. "At least you all aren't as extreme as Cobalt."

"Why what did Cobalt do?" asked Saphria, hobbling into the room with bandages around her midsection

"Oh my!" said Layla "my dear what happened to you, did the ponies do this?"

"No no, we just hit some turbulence with the ship and I had to shield your son from harm during it my ladyship. Yam has already checked me out and says that I'll be fine as long as I don't exert myself for the next few days."

"Well as long as you're both in good health. Anyway, Cobalt came into direct conflict with the princess of the night, Luna, after she tried to locate our son in the dreamscape. He confronted her directly in combat and when he began to lose he…." Layla trailed off.

Frinad stepped in to finish his wife's thought "He used his aura to invoke nightmares in every single creature living in the borders of equestria and threatened to do so every night unless Luna left artair alone."

"Woah...dude….that's messed up." said Connor

"Agreed, I know this is a desperate situation but there is no excuse for such behavior" said Yam

"Has he been punished yet?" asked Saphria.

"Not at the moment, we've decided that it would be best for Artair to decide the fate of Cobalt due to the former's closeness with the equestrian princesses; currently he is rotting in a holding cell for his crime." said Layla.

"Speaking of Artair, where is he? I've been waiting to lay eyes on my first born son for ages now." said Frinad.

Griffith spoke up first "oh we just ran out of fuel so Mia, Crystal, Dylan, and him all left to find some more."

Layla blinked at her younger son "you mean to tell me that there is an entire country out looking for him, you finally get him to safety and the first thing you do is send him back out into the fray?!"

Griffith bit down on the top of his knuckles "oh...that wasn't a very good idea was it?"

* * *

"Darn it. Looks like this place has already been picked clean." Said Dylan

After a few minutes of hoofing it through the dark caverns, the only light coming from Dylan's draconic magic, the group came across a massive open underground pocket that seemed to span almost a mile high. Unfortunately instead of walls of sparkling gems there was nothing but abandoned mine carts and pick axes.

"Why don't we just go deeper?" Asked Mia

"Because deeper is just more abandoned mines." Said Dylan, pointing towards another carved out tunnel. "Obviously Griffith's scans were wrong. Come on, let's find another cave system"

Spike walked forward, nostrils flaring; snout twitching at the air.

"Uh Artair, what are you doing?" asked Crystal

"Just give me a second. I want to try something" replied the baby dragon.

Spike got on his knees and put his head against the ground, moving it around slightly before abruptly stopping. He wrapped his knuckles against the cave floor and tapped it three times; Spike then shook his head and moved it, repeating the same action once more after coming to a stop only to shake his head again and starting the process all over. After the third run through, spike smiled and lifted his head up.

"Here."

"What?"

"There's a deposit right here I'm sure of it!" replied Spike

"Look Artair I don't know what kind of crazy stuff those ponies told you about finding gems but I don't think that's how it works."

Spike ignored Dylan's comment and began to rake his claws through the stone.

"Seriously twerp? you aren't gonna find any-" Dylan was shut up by Spike shoving two clawfuls of gems directly into his face, causing the light dragon's jaw to drop open.

Mia wandered over to the whole and found that the whole thing was filled to the brim with gems.

"Sweet find! Can you teach me how to do that sometime?" said Mia as she scooped up gems into her arms.

"Probably not; even I don't know how I do it, I just do it." replied Spike with a shrug

"Well in either case, you saved us a trip Artair. Good work." said Dylan

"Wait did you just use my-"

"Don't push your luck twerp." Dylan shot back.

The group was so focused on their new mineral find that they were completely unware of two voyures staring at them from a ledge higher up in the cave.

Ember and Thorax had spotted the group while they were flying over the cave entrance and followed them in, accidentally taking a detour that led them to the ledge they were currently sitting on rather than at the bottom.

"We were right! Look at those dragons, forcing spike to dig up gems for them. They probably made up that whole story about his parents so they could make him their slave." said Thorax.

"Looks like it, at least there's only three of them. We might be able to get spike back without a lot of trouble." said Ember

"So how do you want to do this? We've got the element of surprise on our side, you think if we rush them we can take them down before they can do anything."

"Probably, I doubt that even the three of them are stronger than….one of them is looking over here" replied Ember.

Thorax followed her gaze to see that the blue dragon was indeed staring in the general direction of their position.

"You think she sees us?" whispered Thorax

"Not sure. Just play it cool for now and maybe- no wait, SHE SEES US!" shouted Ember

Crystal had taken the window of opportunity to draw her bow and lock it onto the pair.

Thorax and Ember barely had enough time to leap away from the edge before it was taken out by an explosive arrow, they quickly threw out their wings to slow their descent, landing safely on the ground in front of the other dragons.

"AMBUSH! IT'S A FRIGGING AMBUSH!" shouted Crystal, loading another arrow.

"WHAT?! THORAX?! EMBER?! WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING HERE?!" shouted Spike

"We're here to take you home Spike, everyone is worried sick about you" said Thorax.

"If anyone is taking him home" said Dylan, defensively getting between the changeling king and Spike "it's us, he belongs with his own kind. So I suggest you all leave before we have to do something we regret."

"How dare you! I am the dragon lord" protested Ember "you can't speak to me that way!"

"I'll speak to you any way I please 'princess'. The only dragon lords I answer to are Frinad and Layla, not you whatever your name is." Dylan hissed.

"While normally I might be willing to talk this out, make a few jokes along the way, I'm guessing neither of you are really in the mood to negotiate right?" asked Crystal, receiving two nods in response.

"Well then I guess we'll just have to stick straight to the butt kicking then" said Crystal, drawing another arrow and firing it at the pair, creating a sticky trap that engulfed their legs.

"RUN FOR IT!" shouted Crystal, booking it into a tunnel at the opposite end of the cave; the rest of the group soon following.

Ember made quick work of the trap with her fire breath, freeing both her and her friend allowing them to give chase.

What followed was a Scooby-Doo like chase through several tunnels and passages with in the cave, involving several different costumes that appeared out of seemingly nowhere as both groups went deeper into the caves.

"SPIKE PLEASE, BE REASONABLE!" shouted Thorax, wearing a sailor outfit "WE JUST WANT THE BEST FOR YOU!"

"THEN LEAVE ME ALONE! PLEASE, I DON'T WANT TO HURT YOU GUYS!" Spike shouted back, having donned a pirate costume.

"Okay they've clearly brainwashed him, no holding back Thorax." said Ember, flying forward to gain on the two only to be struck in the chest by a light beam courtesy of Dylan.

"Oh I see, YOU WANNA MAKE IT LIKE THAT?!" shouted Thorax, rage quickly building at the sight of his injured comrade "BRING IT ON!" Thorax took the form of a giant spider and rushed after them.

"He's gaining on us Dylan!"

"I can see that Mia! Quick, this way!"

The misfits slid into another passage way too small for Thorax's spider form to follow.

"Shoot! Ember, they're getting away!"

"Follow me! Through here!"

The noble dragons squeezed out into another cave, slightly smaller than the previous one but still lined with various mining equipment, stopping to take a breath apart from Mia who was still revved up and ready to go.

"You think we lost them?" said Crystal

A loud boom from overhead swiftly gave her an answer as they looked up to see Ember and Thorax bursting from one of the cave walls, bringing dust and falling rock out with them.

"ARTAIR, LOOK OUT!" shouted Dylan, narrowly managing to tackle the baby dragon out of the way of some of the falling debris. Unfortunately that action also made him drop the ball of light he was carrying and the entire cave was plunged into darkness.

"I CAN'T SEE!"

"DYLAN LIGHT ANOTHER ONE!"

"I CAN'T FOCUS!"

"WHERE ARE YOU, SHOW YOURSELF!"

"HANG ON I THINK I FOUND A LIGHT" said Spike

Using his fire breath Spike lit the fuse of what he thought was a candle, it took him all of about two seconds to realize he had mistakenly lit a stick of dynamite.

"AHHH!" Spike screamed and tossed the explosive stick away, only to land in a mine cart full of it

"SERIOUSLY?!" shouted Dylan "WHO LEAVES THAT MUCH DYNAMITE IN AN ABANDONED CAVE LIKE THIS?!"

"WHO CARES?!" said Mia "WE GOTTA SPLIT RIGHT-"

 **BOOM!**

* * *

The explosion was heard all the way in ponyville, snapping the mane six out of their argument over whose fault it was that Ember and Thorax didn't take them along to find Spike. They all turned to look at the massive smoke plume that was coming off in the distance.

Pinkie Pie was the first to shatter the silence "five bits says that's where they are right now, any takers?"

* * *

Spike was currently sitting in a never ending darkness as his thoughts returned to him.

'I...I died? NO FAIR!' thought Spike, only for the feeling of singed scales to hit him like a tank

'Pain? Good, so I'm not dead. Wait, what about the others?!'

Sight was the next sense that returned to him, opening his eyes to a blurred vision. He could see several blurs of colors that soon focused into his dragon friends.

'Okay they made it but….Thorax and Ember….oh dear Celestia what did I do….'

Crystal was soon at his side, standing above him and moving her mouth but no sound came out.

'What is she-' then Spike's hearing kicked in

"-eak to me Artair! Please tell me you're alive! I can't lose another friend like this!" she pleaded, tears coming out of her eyes.

Spike's body finally managed to reboot himself and he sat up looking around him.

They were out of the caverns into the desert air now, if the star studded sky was anything to go by; the most striking feature was that now Appleloosa had one heck of a new pothole next to it, thankfully the explosion hadn't brought any collateral damage to the town.

"Oh thank Bahumut you're alive!" squealed Crystal, pulling Spike into a hug only to be immediately pushed away.

"Ember...Thorax….w-where are they?"

"They were your friends weren't they?" said Crystal forlornly "I-I can't say Artair. The explosion happened so fast I have no idea if they got out or not…..I'm so sorry."

Spike began to tear up, because of his own incompetence he had killed two of his best friends in the whole world. He latched onto Crystal like a scared hatchling and the blue dragon quickly hugged Spike tight to comfort him.

"I'm sorry...I'm just so sorry Artair. I know what it's like to lose a frie-"

Another smaller explosion came out of the crater and Thorax and Ember leapt out of it completely unharmed.

"THEY'RE OKAY!" Spike screamed in elation.

"That's great! Although I think they still want to kill us."

Ember shot out a ball of fire towards Dylan who dodged and shot back a light ball in retaliation.

"Yep, still want us dead. Probably even more so than before, we'd better make ourselves scarce little buddy"

Thorax took the form of a bug bear and began to engage Mia who used her super speed to carelessly dance around the beast like it was nothing.

"STAND STILL!"

"Nah, I don't really feel like it!"

Ember and Dylan were much closer in terms of combat prowess, Ember was stronger than Eylan and he knew it perfectly well so he was using his aura to keep the dragon lord at a distance and avoid her fire attacks but she kept trying to get in close to deliver a beatdown.

"I have to admit, I respect a dragon who can last this long against me!" said Ember

"Sorry Ms dragon lord. I don't respect ferals!" said Dylan, firing a beam at Ember which forced her back further.

While the two were distracted, Crystal and Spike had begun to sneak away from the fight scene.

"Crystal, they aren't going to hurt my friends are they?" asked Spike

"That's entirely up to the feral dragon and the changeling Artair. But I can say that they won't have any serious injuries, Dylan and Mia are tough but I don't think either of them are going to beat a dragon lord and a changeling king. They're just stalling so that we can get away, once we're gone they'll both retreat and lose them"

Back at the fight Thorax had finally gotten fed up with Mia's antics and decided to make a risky play to end the fight, he reverted back to his normal form and shot out a spell he hadn't used for a long long time.

Mia smiled and tried to dodge away from the cloud of green but quickly found it was a lot faster than she realized as it engulfed her entire body. Then she felt a burning sensation, followed by intense pain as if her very soul was being ripped from her body.

"Wait what? What's going on?! Spike what is he doing?!" whispered Crystal from their hiding spot.

The cloud quickly dissipated and Mia dropped to her knees, barely able to support herself.

Taking in a deep breath, the energetic dragon looked up at Thorax and simply spouted: "what...did you just do?"

"Oldest changeling trick in the book, from when we used to feed on love. I basically weakened you by taking away some of your life energy, let's see if you can run away now." the changeling king replied

Mia tried to, keyword 'tried', but she ended up tripping over her own feet; by absorbing some of her life energy, Thorax had temporarily disabled the powers given to her by her aura and since speed was her only means of protection she was basically defenseless.

Dylan had looked over to see why Mia was screaming and Ember used the distraction to rush up and grapple Dylan from behind who struggled against Ember's strength.

"Thorax! Now!" shouted Ember

A similar green cloud erupted from Thorax's antlers and surrounded Dylan who struggled even harder to get away, but it was utterly meaningless as he yelled in pain before collapsing onto the ground just like Mia.

"Now where is that archer?"

Crystal was hiding behind some conveniently placed barrels with Spike and was shaking like a leaf. For the first time in a long time,Crystal was scared; scared that she wouldn't be able to keep a promise she made to her family.

Swallowing the lump in her throat, Crystal leaned down to Spike and began to whisper "okay Artair, the situation looks bleak so here's the plan: I'm going to throw down a smoke bomb arrow on the count of three, when that happens I want you to fly into the air as fast as you can and get to the ship with these." Crystal took of her hoodie and wrapped it around Spike as a makeshift bag that held all the gems they found "tell them what happened and get to the Vlemm enclave, Frinad and Layla will be able to send reinforcements to get us once you guys are there."

"What about you?" replied Spike

Crystal weakly smiled as she pulled out the arrow she mentioned earlier "buying you some time."

"What?! No! Crystal, I can't leave you guys behind like this! We're friends, we've got each other's backs!" pleaded spike

"That's what I'm doing artair, remember: noble dragons look after their own Don't worry, I'll be fine. Now on three, you need to fly away, okay?"

Spike nodded.

"Alright, one."

Spike readied his wings

"Two."

He bent his knees for take off

"THREE!" Crystal shouted as she slammed the arrow into the ground creating a massive cloud of mist.

Spike took off like a rocket into the air, the ground rapidly shrinking above him. Pausing for a moment to remember where the airship was, the baby dragon took of towards it while tears began to stream out of his eyes.

"Over there!" shouted Thorax.

Crystal leapt atop the barrel with three arrows loaded into her bow.

"'Ello gov'na!" said Crystal in a mock cockney accent.

"Where's Spike?" demanded Ember

"Him? Oh little guy had to split. Shame too, I hate being a third wheel." said Crystal "now are we going to stand around? Or are we gonna fight?"

Ember and Thorax let out a war cry and charged as Crystal let out an onslaught of arrows.

'I sacrifice myself for my clan, for my friends, and for my family' though Crystal to herself as the two leaders bared down on her.

* * *

"They aren't responding to their communicators. They must have been at the explosion!" shouted Griffith.

The once calm atmosphere was quickly destroyed by a loud explosion in the distance, right where the recon team was supposed to be which caused nearly every dragon aboard to start freaking out which wasn't helped by the apparent radio silence.

"Something must have happened, but what?!" said Saphria. "What could possibly have made an explosion like that."

"We'd better investigate." said Yam "our friends could be hurt or worse de-"

With almost comedic timing, Spike flew straight through the open door and collided with the opposite wall.

"Big bro! You're okay!" said Griffith, pulling Spike into a hug.

"Where are the others?" asked Saphria. "And, why do you have Crystal's hoodie?"

Connor's expression quickly shifted to one of dread. "Crystal never lets that hoodie out of her sight. Artair what happened?!"

Spike began to blubber, his adrenalin filled body failing to even string together a single sentence until it finally managed to spit out three little words that brought the entire world of the paragons to a screeching halt.

"They've been captured" said Spike through breaths.

Everyone went dead quiet as Spike's words sunk in.

Their mission had now become MUCH more complicated.


	10. the usual dragons

Crystal had been drumming his claws against the steel table for a good half hour now, for a so called criminal who knew the whereabouts of a close friend of a group of ponies called 'the bearers of harmony' or some such nonsense, they sure were taking their sweet time in getting someone to question her.

Back in that pony town, Appleloosa as Artair called it, everything had gone to Tartarus in a handbasket incredibly quickly when that changeling showed up; Crystal had seen a lot during her career as a Paragon but the spell that was cast on them, that was a new one.

Crystal couldn't be too mad though, they had certainly put up a good fight. She had lasted a surprisingly long time against two powerful leaders, came pretty close to taking one down too, but when that same cloud that had taken away Dylan and Mia's powers surrounded her it was all over. Luckily by that point Artair was long gone, hopefully to regroup and think up their next move; she wouldn't hold it against them if they decided to leave them behind and get to the Vlemm enclave, Artair was an important asset so it would be natural that they'd want to get him home as soon as possible before plotting a rescue mission.

Crystal stared directly at the 'mirror' against one of the walls. She couldn't see it but he knew that some creature was watching her from the other side, just waiting for her to do something but she wasn't giving them the satisfaction.

The feral dragon lord and the changeling king had them all quickly restrained but it wouldn't have made much of a difference considering they had been deprived of their auras. The 'bearers of harmony' arrived soon after looking pretty angry. A firm backhand, or rather backhoof, to her now bruised cheek by the blue one had only confirmed that these were the same ponies that they had seen back in the city. Thankfully the purple one had prevented the rest of the group from doing anymore damage to them, on the other hand she did use her authority as a princess to have them all arrested and shipped off to Canterlot for interrogation. Crystal had sat in a cell overnight only to be stripped of her clothes and her weapons before being brought into the room she was currently sitting in which brings us to the here and now.

The door next to the fake mirror opened up and the purple alicorn that had them detained sat down in the chair across from her with a stone faced expression.

'Doesn't want to look weak or she just doesn't want me to see the cards just yet. I can work with this' thought Crystal

Before she could get a single word out Crystal interrupted "so what is this? Are you going to torture me for information now? I've always found myself partial to racks but I'll have whatever's good. Or is this going to be one of these therapy sessions where we talk about how my father never loved me until you trick me into giving away vital info? Don't bother, if you think even for a second that I'm going to betray my friends you are sorely mistaken."

Twilight was taken aback by the bluntness of the statement but nevertheless maintained her composure.

"Actually I wanted to know more about the noble dragons."

"Ah so the therapist route, alright I'll bite. What do you wanna know?" said Crystal, putting her feet atop the table.

"Who are you? Be truthful."

"I'm Crystal. Greatest archer amongst the noble dragons, you saw how good of a shot I was back in that city didn't you?" replied the blue dragon

"That was you?!" said Twilight, her composure having gone completely out the window "what in the name of Celestia did you spray us with?"

"A specially designed tear gas, harmless to reptiles like me but incredibly potent against mammals like you. Now ask me something that matters, or do you wanna keep going on twenty questions?" replied Crystal.

Twilight glared at the dragon "okay smart alec, where are your friends taking Spike?"

"Spike who?" said Crystal, playing dumb.

"Spike the baby dragon you kidnapped!" shouted Twilight.

"Oh you mean Artair. And as for kidnapping? We didn't kidnap anyone, little buddy came with us out of his own free will." said Crystal.

"You expect me to believe that?"

"No not really, you seem like a pretty stubborn pony who tends to focus too much on small details to see the big picture until it's too late." replied Crystal, tone taking a serious turn.

"I AM NOT A- no, you aren't going to get the better of me." said Twilight, calming herself down with Cadence's breathing technique "still haven't answered my question though, where are they taking him?"

"The Vlemm enclave, where all the noble dragons live."

"And where is that?" asked Twilight

"Can't answer that princess, it's the biggest secret of my clan." said Crystal "don't even try to torture it out of me, I've got an iron will when it comes to that."

Twilight searched Crystal's face for any signs of fear or weakness, something that would imply that she isn't so tough as she puts herself out as but there was nothing but pure confidence in her appearance mixed in with a bit of mockery. It was clear she couldn't force it out of her at all.

"Fine, those weapons we saw in Baltimare, where did you get them?"

"Why? You want some of them? Sorry, but if you have to ask you can't afford to ask." replied crystal "but seriously though, we didn't get them anywhere. Our local gearhead Griffith made them, along with a million other pieces that make our lives so much easier. Guy's a real brainiac"

Twilight's bookish side slowly began to overshadow her mother-bear instincts the moment Crystal talked about 'new technologies', to know that there was such an advanced society out there in the world; Twilight couldn't help but get a little bit curious

"Like what?" said the princess of friendship, the force in her tone lessening.

Crystal smiled 'misdirection, works every time.' she thought to herself.

"Well let's start off with the father cubes, small clawheld devices that can do tons of stuff for us…."

* * *

Just a few rooms over Dylan was being questioned by Applejack and Rainbow dash in a 'good-cop, bad-cop' role respectively, which mostly comprised of Applejack holding Dash down everytime she tried to take a shot at the dragon.

"I'm gonna ask you again, where is Spike?!" shouted Dash, shoving her muzzle right up against Dylan's

"And I'm telling you again, you aren't getting anything out of me period. I would rather die being loyal to my friends than live as a traitor." replied Dylan.

Rainbow Dash's only response was to grab ahold of Dylan's head with both of her hooves and slam it down onto the metal table as hard as she possibly could

Dylan sat dazed for a few moments before shaking off the blow "oh come on, you never start with the head, it makes the victim all woozy. They won't be able to feel the next-"

He stopped right as the wonderbolt slammed one of her forehooves down on one of his hands. Only for the yellow dragon to shrug at her effort.

"See? Didn't even notice that one. Even if I did, doesn't matter; You can beat me as much as you bloody want, but you'll never be able to break me. Artair will remain unfound and there is nothing you can do about it, you selfish morons." said Dylan.

"Selfish?! Yer callin us selfish?" said Applejack, barely managing to get Dash to calm back down again.

"Yes I am. I see a group of ponies who are refusing to let go of the past because they are afraid of change in their world, I see ponies who are preventing a dragon from achieving his true potential because they want to keep him enslaved, I see ponies who have not for even a single moment considered their so called friend's feelings in this whole affair. Worse still, you don't even have the guts to fight us like true warriors; instead you hide behind a changeling king and a dragon lord while they do the dirty work for you. So not only are you selfish, but cowardly as well." Dylan spat.

"OH YOU ARE GONNA GET IT!" shouted Rainbow Dash, only to be held back by her farmer friend.

"Dash cut it out! You're only givin him what he wants, just go outside, get some fresh air, and calm down. Ah'll handle this.

Seeing that Applejack wasn't gonna let her deliver a much deserved beatdown, Rainbow Dash let out a huff and flew out of the room.

"Hmm. darn shame there." said Dylan

"What do you mean?" asked Applejack

"The circumstances I mean. If they were different I may have been great friends with that pegasus, lot of admirable qualities in her: tough, headstrong, doesn't take flak from anyone, and above all else loyal to those she cares about, almost to a fault; though her aggression and ego are two glaring weaknesses."

"Yeah, tell me about it." said Applejack. "Anywho, back to business."

"How many times do I have to say that my lips are sealed?!" said Dylan

"That ain't what ah'm after mister…."

"Dylan, my name's Dylan."

"Right Dylan, what ah wanna know is why ya'll even want Spike in the first place?"

"Well it's more his parents who want him, but regardless of that….." Dylan swallowed some of his spit "he is the destined savor of our people, the soul of all noble dragons, he will help us rise again and take back all that is rightfully ours from those who have stolen it." said Dylan

"Spike?"

"No, his name is Artair and that's only what the prophecy says; honestly I don't believe in all that fate and destiny garbage, the path you walk in life is forged by you and you alone, not any other worldly forces. But hey, I guess we'll just have to wait and see where Artair paves out his road." said dylan. "Oh and don't ask me about the prophecy, that is on a need to know basis."

"Okay but why take him by force, ya could have jus asked us." said the farmer pony

"In case you haven't noticed, we noble dragons aren't exactly the most social creatures; at least when it comes to the other kingdoms. We like to keep our affairs very discreet, hidden from the world, nobody knows we exist and we'd prefer it stay that way. If we came up front and told you about the noble dragons and how Artair factored in, it would make a domino effect through the world and we'd never have a moment's peace ever again. Besides, given how you've all acted so far I'm not particularly inclined to believe that you would have all just handed him over to us." replied Dylan.

"Really? Even though you've been the ones attacking us?" said Applejack

Dylan threw his head back and let out a loud cackle, one that was half-sincere and half-sarcastic but all insulting.

"Oh don't try to play the victim here" said Dylan, venom lacing his tone. "In almost every case we've told you to back off, to just leave us be, and everytime you try to fight us anyways; are we just supposed to let you beat us up? We've got to defend ourselves, sure we've gone a bit overboard a couple times but who hasn't? All this anger, it's a bit uncalled for; I mean have we actually done anything to hurt Artair so far? I know he can send you letters, we didn't know about that before, so couldn't he have just let you know he was in trouble?"

Applejack tried to think up a response, a way to justify their behavior so far, to tell herself she was doing the right thing; but Dylan did raise a pretty good point, if Spike was in trouble, couldn't he have just sent a note? Were they really in the wrong here?

No, no they weren't

"that doesn't change what happened in Baltimare, all those ponies ya'll hurt!"

Dylan frowned, then sighed "would it help if I said I was sorry?"

Applejack froze, that was not the response she was expecting; she thought he would have defended his friend's actions, not apologize for them

"I mean we really didn't want it to come to that, the plan was just to scoop our friends up and head on. But then you pinned them down and Crystal decided to take action, sure she could have handled it better in at least a dozen ways but she didn't really have time to think, her friends were in danger after all" Dylan looked up at Applejack "you can say whatever the Tartarus you want about us noble dragons, but if nothing else we are loyal to our allies until the very end, I would gladly fight and die for my friends and they would return the favor in a heartbeat. Which is why I'm not going to let my guard down and give away where they are, just because you're being nice to me. I refuse to be a traitor."

"Ya caught onto that?" said the orange earth pony

"Uh, hello? Getting in close to the victim, putting them at ease, before popping the magic question that screws them over is a classic interrogation technique. That is like first year Garda stuff." said Dylan, "anyway since you've failed miserably to get anything out of me, who's next?"

Applejack didn't say a word, instead she simply opted to calmly walk out of the room before she did something she would seriously regret.

* * *

In the third and final room was Mia and Pinkie Pie (who had moved from anger to bargaining), the two were stuck in an endless feedback loop.

"Tell me where Spike is!" said Pinkie

"I don't wanna." replied Mia

"Where's Spike?"

"I dunno"

"Do you know where Spike is?"

"Maaaayyybe yes, maaaayyybe no."

"Then tell me where Spike is!" said the pink party pony

This had been going on for a good-half hour now, supervised by Rarity who believed that Pinkie Pie could merely annoy a confession out the dragon like she did with everyone else; what she failed to account for was a dragon that was as upbeat and bubbly as the party pony, making her immune to Pinkie's 'techniques'.

Rarity was about to try and close the loop her friend was caught in, but Pinkie beat her to it.

"Enough! This is getting us nowhere, how about this; if you tell us where Spike is I'll make you my super duper, ultra secret, mind blowing cupcakes!" said Pinkie.

"Hmmmm" said Mia in mock consideration "no thanks, I'm more of a cookie kind of gal, cake is just plain gross"

And there it goes…..

Mia just said what one should never ever say to Pinkie Pie's face, lest you face her wrath.

"W-what?" stuttered Pinkie Pie.

"I said I don't like cake, never have and never will."

Pinkie Pie pulled out a dictionary from her mane and began to flip through it

"Those words! Is it possible to use them together in a sentence like that!"

"I hate cake! I hate cake! I hate cake!" repeated Mia

"YOU HATE CAKE?! No wonder you all act so mean all the time" Pinkie then materialized out a chocolate cupcake out of thin air and shoved it into the dragon's face "here! Try it!"

Mia slapped the cupcake out of Pinkie's hoof, the sweet treat landing on the with an audible splat, "get that out of my face! I said no!"

Pulling out another cupcake, this time vanilla "try it and you'll love it!"

"I've had cake before! Hated every minute of it!"

"But you haven't had a Pinkie Pie cake! Come on just one little-" Pinkie stopped when a white hoof fell onto her shoulder.

"Pinkie, darling. I think there are more important matters at hand than whether or not a dragon likes cupcakes, remember?" said Rarity

"Oh yeah! Tell me where Spike-" Pinkie was cut off once again by the same hoof of her fashionista friend.

"Let's try another approach, shall we?" said Rarity, gently pushing the pink earth pony away and daintily situating herself on the chair across from Mia

"Aw. But I was having so much fun with her!" protested Mia

"You're not here to have fun. You're here to tell us where my little Spikey-Wikey is."

Mia had to physically snuff out a giggle fit "Spikey-Wikey? That's what you call him? Oh I am so gonna use that next time I see him, that is like the cutest nickname ever! Still doesn't change the fact that I don't know where he is and if I did, I wouldn't tell you"

"Well perhaps there's something that could jog your memory?" said Rarity, fluttering her eyelashes

"What do you mean?"

"Well we have plenty of valuable things to offer in exchange for Spike, perhaps we can come to an agreement of sorts; bring the rest of your dragon friends in on the deal too, hmmm?"

Mia started at Rarity, her face gradually twisting into an expression of disgust.

"That is so gross!" said Mia "sure I like to party, but not like that!

"What?" Replied Rarity in confusion

"And cutting my friends in? You little deviant, how dare you!" Said Mia, anger slowly increasing in her voice

"What are you talking about?"

"Look lady, while I'm flattered that you're offering yourself up like that I'm afraid I just don't play for that team." Explained Mia

Rarity though over the dragon's exclamation, trying to figure out what she had said to offend her in such a way. When it finally hit her, the fashionista's eyes nearly sunk into the back of her head.

"NO NO,OH SWEET CELESTIA NO! THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT AT ALL, I MEANT WE COULD PAY YOU WITH GEMS OR ANYTHING ELSE YOU MIGHT WANT FOR SPIKE! NOT THAT!" Rarity sputtered out.

The fire in Mia's eyes quickly returned at that statement "oh so now you think I'm some cheap feral who would sell out her friends for some shiny rocks?"

"Well I-"

"You what? You assumed that just because I'm a dragon that makes me a greedy backstabbing jerk who only cares about themselves? Well let me tell you, we noble dragons aren't anything like that, we actually care about each other and would do anything to project our own. The fact that you think I would be willing to betray them at the drop of a hat just makes me sick. Get out, we're done here." said Mia.

"But-" protested Pinkie

"I SAID GET OUT!" screamed Mia.

The two ponies quickly jumped up and ran out of the room, leaving mia alone.

The red dragon plopped back down in her chair, a look of disgust remaining on her face.

"Friggin ponies, magic and friendship my butt. That was totally out of line there." muttered Mia "the others had better bust us out of here sometime soon."

* * *

A dead silence hung in the war room of the Violet Dawn; the fact that the airship even had it's own war room had greatly surprised Spike.

They were all sitting next to each other around the large circular table with all but three of the chairs being occupied by a dragon and everyone there knew who should have been sitting there.

Once they had gotten the ship a safe distance away from the scene as not to be spotted, Saphria called an emergency meeting of the Paragons to consider their next move; of course she failed to account for the difficulty on her teammates part in addressing the elephant in the room, so they had just sat there without saying so much as a word, quietly mulling over any ideas they could throw onto the table.

"Alright I'll say it: what do you think our next move should be?" said Griffith.

"Well let's consider the situation: three of our friends have been captured by princess Celestia's allies and have been taking to an undisclosed location for interrogations or torture, both of which would be pointless as we all know that Crystal, Dylan, and Mia wouldn't betray us under any circumstance, correct?"

Everyone nodded except for Spike

"Well actually, I think I know where they've been taken." said the baby dragon

"You do?" replied Saphria

"Yeah, apart from Tartarus there's only one other place in equestria I know that ponies take dangerous creatures like them for interrogations: Canterlot Castle." replied Spike

"THE Canterlot Castle, residence of Princess Celestia and Luna? Possibly one of the most heavily guarded areas on the planet?"

"Oh...that isn't good is it?" said the baby dragon

Yam sighed "well it's far from ideal, I can safely assume that the purple alicorn will be there along with the dragon lord and changeling king you told us about which makes for a total of five powerful beings we'd have to contend with, on their home turf nonetheless. Furthermore there are likely numerous royal guard squads on constant patrol, they'll be on the lookout for us. To top it off, even if our friends are being held there we have no prior knowledge of the castle's layout, if we were to rescue them we'd be running in there blind."

"So what are you proposing Yam?" said Saphria.

"Our mission was to retrieve Artair at any and all costs and return him to the Vlemm enclave, as much as I hate to say it: Dylan, Mia, and Crystal fall under a cost. We'll have to leave them for the time being until we can muster enough force and intel to mount a rescue mission." said Yam

Silence engulfed the room again, Yam wasn't wrong by any means: there was too much risk in charging into canterlot to rescue their friends, they would likely all be captured by the opposing force and their mission would meet a complete and utter failure; but on the other hand, they were noble dragons, could they really just abandon their friends like this when they needed them?

"I can see you are a bit reluctant to go along with this so how about we put this to a vote? I put mine in for heading straight home."

"Seconded" said Connor "I love those guys like family but if we get caught there's nothing we can do to help em', as long as we come back later I'd be fine with leaving them for now."

"No." said Saphria "we go after them, we're noble dragons; we always watch out for our own, through thick and thin, come Tartarus or high water. I swore an oath to protect my clan when I joined the Paragons and I am not about to break it."

"I'm with Saphi, no dragon left behind; sure it's a tough spot but we've gotten out of worse before right? We're the friggin Paragons! We'll find a way in, one way or another. Plus we have no idea what those ponies are doing to them, Mia, Crystal, and Dylan might be being tortured as we speak!" added Griffith.

"That's two for rescue and two for retreat. So I suppose the decision comes to you Artair" said Yam, turning towards the prince "should we stay or go?"

Spike looked between the two sides, both starting at him with anticipation without a hint of malice or intimidation; this made Spike ease up, knowing that no matter what he picked the rest of the group would respect his decision regardless.

Taking a breath in, Spike readied his explanation.

"Guys I've lived amongst ponies my whole life and during that time I've learned alot of things, laughed and cried, loved and lost, traveled to where and back again, but after it all the one thing that has stuck with me has been friendship. I learned that true friendship can move mountains, force dark forces back from whence they came, and give you a second chance at life; as long as it's pure in your hearts. I've only been with you guys for a few weeks but I can see that you guys are really close, maybe even more so than twilight and her friends and I know that if it was them in this situation they wouldn't hesitate to rescue each other; so I say that we get our friends back, I know we can do it!" said Spike, ending with gusto.

"Yeah!"

"Very well, how do you want to approach this?" said Yam, trying to mask the fear in her voice.

"Well what are our options?" asked the baby dragon

Saphria rubbed her chin "hmmm. I've seen this sort of mission before and find that one of two approaches tend to be the most effective: smart and quiet or loud and dumb."

The ninja dragon grabbed a stylus and began to write on the digital screen that took up one of the walls.

"In the quiet approach we'd learn the guard patrols and the layout of the castle, carving out an attack plan based upon that; once complete, we'd carefully and precisely move into the castle, free Dylan, Mia, and Crystal and then move back out without any creature seeing us." explained Saphria

"But if just one guard or ponies decides to defer from the plan, the whole thing gets derailed." remarked Griffith.

"Exactly, it's quick and clean but leaves no room for error, which brings me to loud and dumb: we study the castle to find any exploitable weak points such as where guards are in low quantity or the walls are thinner, once we find them we load up on weapons and charge straight at it, bowling over anyone in our way, yes it's crude and carries a big risk but we can afford to make a lot more mistakes and if the blitz play works, they might not be able to catch us before we make our escape."

"Actually" said Spike raising his claw into the air "I think I've got a better idea, I saw it in a movie once."

"Oh this should be good" said Connor.

"Griffith, do you have any invisibility devices or something like that?"

"Five of them."

"And anything that can counter magic?"

"What do I look like? An amature? Of course I do!"

"Good, you'll need both. Along with anything else you might need to defend yourself, now Yam" the baby dragon turned towards the scholar "you'll be with him on the diversion team."

"Wait diversion team? What the heck are you planning Artair?" said Saphria.

"You see, I know we can't face Celestia head on with either plan, so we'll split up into two teams…."

It took Spike about a hour and a half with multiple diagrams to explain just how they were going to get Mia, Dylan, and Crystal out of Canterlot Castle, primarily because spike also had to tell them the whole castle layout and guard rotations (something he had inadvertently picked up during his Momlestia visits to Canterlot). But once it was all said and done there were mischievous smiles all around.

"This is so clever and devious, I'm honestly surprised a baby face like you can come up with something like this." said Saphria.

"What can I say, you guys must be rubbing off on me." replied Spike with a shrug.

"That just means you're another step closer to becoming one of us Artair, now we'd better get started on the preparations for tomorrow. It's gonna be a wild ride, I just hope it works." said Griffith.

The group stood up and walked out the war room, all heading towards their various rooms to start their prep time for the next morning. With good reason too, after all:

It's not everyday you try to pull off the prison break of the century in Canterlot.


	11. canterlot crashers

Saphria laid on her belly on the vantage point outside of canterlot castle, there were plenty of trees planted around the place so nobody had noticed a new one sprouting overnight and even if they did they wouldn't have questioned it. Gazing through the binoculars at the throne room she smiled when she saw the princess of friendship take the bait, now all they had to do was wait for the guards to-

"New orders from the princess!" said a pegasi guard rushing over to the two outside "all guards are to immediately report inside the castle in pursuit of the two rogue dragons inside, apprehend on sight!"

"Sir yes sir!" the other two chorused.

Saphria grinned, Artair's plan had worked perfectly so far, all the guards were distracted by Griffith and Yam which allowed them to slip in unnoticed under all the chaos.

"Are they gone?" asked Connor, plucking away a fruit from a low hanging branch

"Yeah, time to move on to phase two. Come on guys."

The trio slid down the tree trunk to the grassy ground below and simply walked straight into the castle, no fuss.

"I must say, this is pure genius. Using Griffith and Yam as a distraction like this." said Saphria.

"Thanks Saphria, appreciate it."

The three pushed through the front doors of the castle into the extravagant foyer, to which Connor let out a loud whistle.

"Dang, these guys have got some wicked cool digs; I mean personally I'm not that into flashy stuff but wow." said Connor

"Stay focused Connor, we're not here for sightseeing, now artair where are those cells?" said Saphria

"In the lower levels of the castle, there's several stairwells that can take us down...oh wait." dread began to creep into Spike's tone

"What? What's wrong?"

Spike scratched the back of his head in embarrassment "I just remembered that they're all hidden passageways, this castle has tons of them; and I might have forgotten which ones lead to the dungeon."

"You forget?! What do you mean you forget?! You said you know this castle like the back of your claw!" said Saphria

"I thought I did, but it's been awhile Saphria! I'm not perfect!" Spike argued, only for Connor to get between the two

"Come on guys,chill out. We've only got an hour to kill right now, don't spend it fighting; you do know where the passages are right Artair?"

Spike nodded

"Then let's just try each one until we find the right one. If it leads down then we're going the right way right?" said Connor

"I suppose so. Given I'm not a fan of improvisation, especially in these affairs but I guess it'll have to do, lead the way Artair." said Saphria.

"Okay, I think there's one behind the giant painting of Prince Blueblood. The passageway behind it's probably the only reason Celestia keeps the darned picture."

"Why wouldn't she want it?"

"Guy is kind of an idiotic jerk"

* * *

This was hands down the most idiotic thing Griffith had ever done in his life and this is coming from a guy who once thought it was a good idea to combine a toaster and a flamethrower, he can still smell the scent of scorched wheat to this day.

Yam and him had split up at the first cross road they had spotted to cover more ground and lessen the chances of them being surrounded. But the fact that the ponies were much quicker than he anticipated complicated matters, having the floor of each hallway frozen solid would have been really handy right now.

Luckily he had brought plenty of gadgets along to throw at them, like the trail of smoke bombs he was dropping behind him. Unlike gas Crystal used back in Baltimare, these were completely harmless apart from a minor cough and they broke the ponies' line of sight fairly well, more than once some of them accidentally ran into a wall or column.

After a bit he had managed to lose all the guards chasing him, but the two pegusi, the orange earth pony, and the horde dragon didn't give up so easily.

"WHEN I GET AHOLD OF YOU I AM GONNA TURN YOU INTO A DRAGON PRETZEL!" shouted Rainbow Dash, moving forward with a burst of speed.

Griffith tucked and rolled to avoid her, pulling out a small gun and firing at her when she turned around to make another dive. Instead of a beam, a rapidly increasing bubble sped towards the wonderbolt, encapsulating her inside of it.

"What the heck?! What is this?"

"A bubble gun, duh!" said Griffith as he ran past the trapped pegasus and turned a corner, throwing down a column as a blockade.

The bubble quickly popped and Rainbow Dash fell to the floor, taking a moment to shrug off the impact she quickly resumed the chase with others.

Mere seconds after they had left however, a hidden doorway opened up on one of the walls and a certain baby dragon walked out of it.

"Hmm, I think we forgot to take a left turn at the kitchen." said Spike,

"Looks like...hey wait did we just miss something?" said Connor "this place is trashed."

"Must have been Griffith, there's no ice anywhere." said Saphria "doesn't really matter though, we gotta keep moving. Where's the next passage?"

"Right through here...I think." said Spike, pressing a hidden panel on the opposite door opening up another passage way

Further down the hallway Griffith skidded to a stop when he came upon a dead end, no doors and only one window that opened up to a several story drop; turning around he could see the group slowly advancing on him.

"End of the road fella." said Applejack. "This is yer last chance ta give up Spike."

"How about you meet my other friend instead? GO!" said Griffith, tossing a small humanoid figurine onto the floor.

It erupted into a cloud of violet smoke that shot up seven feet into the air, once it cleared away a large black golem with purple symbols on it stood in the figures place; the golem took one look at the quartet and let out a roar, charging straight at them and knocking them aside like bowling pins.

Griffith leaned down towards Fluttershy "hey, you gonna be alright? Did he hit you too hard?" there was an air of genuine concern in his voice, he didn't want to hurt Artair's friends anymore than he had to.

Fluttershy groaned as she tried to get to her feet.

"Yeah you're gonna be fine, see ya!" the mechanic hopped on top of the golems' back and hitched a ride as the stone man started bashing through walls.

"Ugh, come on now everypony. On yer feet! He's getting away!" said Applejack.

"I hope the others are doing a lot better than we are right now." added Fluttershy

* * *

Yam skated through the halls of canterlot castle, turning it into her own skating rink, throwing down a path of ice that she used to propel herself ahead of her pony pursuers.

Being an ice dragon meant that she had the unexpected benefit of granting her full traction on demand on her ice trails no matter how slick it was, having a good understanding of physics also meant she knew how to keep her momentum up so that she maintained a speed consistently faster than the princess of friendship.

Of course it wasn't like the alicorn didn't try to teleport in front of her, but Yam merely threw snowballs in her face to prevent her from getting a clear shot at her.

The changeling was also troublesome as he kept attempting to cast the spell he used back in Appleloosa on her, but her agility combined with the fact that he had to run while casting it made it very difficult for Thorax to get a clear shot unlike he did with Mia.

The strangest thing however had to be the pink earth pony, unlike the others she was actually keeping pace with her, skating along the ice trail like it wasn't even there, she didn't even have ice skates on! Somehow this pony was directly defying the very laws of physics and Yam didn't like it one bit.

"HI!"

"Gah!" Yam screamed, completely startled.

"What do you want for Spike huh? Gems? Cupcakes? Gem flavored cupcakes? Name your price!"

Yam was so distracted by the pink pony that she didn't notice she was headed straight for a window, by the time she finally looked up to see where she was headed it was already too late. The ice dragon smashed through the glass pane with a resounding crash, shattering it into pieces and started to fall. Luckily for Yam the drop out of this window was much shorter than the one Griffith had come across and she ended up falling through the skylight of the castle's library.

"Pinkie, Rarity, get down to the front doors and block her in! Thorax and I will cut her off from the air!" barked Twilight as she spread her wings and flew out the window after Yam, Thorax quickly following.

Just outside in the gardens, Spike, Saphria, and Connor gazed up at the crazy wipeout they had just witnessed, looks of worry focused on the now shattered window.

"That looked painful. Do you think Yam will be okay?" said Spike

"She'll be fine, yam is a lot tougher than she looks. Artair, resourceful too. Odds are she's already gotten back up and dusted herself off" replied Saphria

"I can vouch for that, Yam is my best friend and I've seen her take a lot worse spills and come out just fine. You have to admit the wipe out was pretty epic though" added Connor

"Connor!" Spike and Saphria said in unison

The plantmancer shrugged "What? I'm just saying."

"regardless we have to keep looking, we're much lower to the ground now which is a good sign. You said the next one is under a rock Artair?" asked Saphria

"Yup" said Spike, lifting up the stone in question "careful though, this one is a slide."

Back inside the library Yam had hidden herself behind one of the bookshelves as she picked out the shards of glass embedded into her chest, they weren't deep or large enough to cause her any lasting damage but they still stung like crazy. The only reason she was still standing was due to a combination of draconic durability and thinking quickly enough to conjure a snow pile below her to break her fall.

Their game of tag had turned into hide and seek, the three ponies and a changeling stalking the shelves for her.

She would have used a small snow drift to blind them and make her escape without bringing any harm to their persons. But she was completely surrounded by ancient tomes containing near infinite amounts of knowledge, any use of her ice powers would ruin any that got caught in the blast and she couldn't risk destroying such valuable artifacts from a time long gone.

They were closing in fast and she needed to think of something quick to slip away, otherwise all this effort would have been for nothing.

Yam gazed around the corner and spotted the changeling approaching fast. That's when it came to her, how she could escape with minimal collateral damage to the surrounding areas; Yam quickly channeled her ice aura's magic.

The magical poof that sounded off from behind the shelves was spotted almost instantly by Thorax.

"There you are! No running away this time!" Thorax fired off the magic depriving spell right at Yam who made no movements to dodge away. To Thorax's horror when the spell made impact, Yam's entire body shattered into small pieces instead of just weakening her like he intended.

"Oh no! What have I done?!"

"Thorax!" said Twilight speeding over to the changeling "what happened?!"

"I-I didn't mean to kill her! I just cast that magic removal spell like I did back in Appleloosa, I didn't think it would shatter her!" Thorax sobbed.

Twilight looked over Yam's remains, holding various pieces up in her magic, examining them for signs of what went wrong.

It took her only a few moments to figure out what went wrong "This is a fake."

"W-what?"

"This wasn't Yam, it was just an ice sculpture shaped like her."

"Then where's-" the loud bang that came from the doors to the library made Twilight and Thorax jump three feet into the air. Looking over to the source of the noise they saw that Yam had broken down the doors with a large icicle that served as a battering ram.

"We're okay!" Pinkie Pie shouted.

"Relatively speaking" Rarity added with a groan.

"Sorry about that. But you all didn't leave me a lot of options." said Yam, creating another ice trail to skate down the hallway.

As Thorax watched her slide away he turned to Twilight and said "do you think the others are having a better time?"

* * *

Silver Crunch was perched high up on a ladder, icing bag clenched tightly in his hooves.

As the head dessert chef in canterlot castle, he was tasked with making all of Princess Celestia's cakes and this wasn't as easy as it sounded. While the princess was more than happy with the modest meals served by the chefs in all the other divisions, she had surprisingly simple tastes when one came down to it; when it came to cakes she was as picky as they come, everything had to be just right or it went in the trash, worser still was that the alicorn ate an unnaturally large amount of cake, Silver swore that he once saw her unhinge her jaw and swallow a three layer cake whole. Many have tried to meet her high expectations when it came to sugary desserts but all before him have failed, he had lasted the longest out of anypony. Sure there were assistants who wanted to work under his tutelage but none made it farther than a week, they all cracked under the pressure. But not Silver Crunch, he was sturdier than that.

His latest creation was a five layer banana-chocolate chip cake with peanut butter frosting. One of his best works, he had spent the entire weekend working tirelessly on it to ensure it was just right; with good reason too, Princess Celestia said this would be the last cake he would make before his three month vacation, he'd earned it. Tomorrow he'd be on a train to Manehattan enjoying a nice long nap, as long as nothing happened to this cake in the next thirty seconds.

Discord must have poked his head into the room at that moment, as a large stone golem carrying a dragon on his back burst through the wall to his left and ran straight past Silver Crunch, nicking his ladder in the process.

Silver flailed about, trying to regain his balance or at least trying to make sure he fell anywhere that wasn't near the cake. He couldn't fail now, not at the final stretch. He took a leap of faith and landed safely on a pile of flour bags in the corner. He looked up at the cake and let out a sigh of relief, not a single imperfection on it.

Just then a rainbow blur streaked past him, causing the cake to shake from the wind. Silver Crunch quickly rushed over and steadied the cake on the platter with his hooves, being as careful as he could to prevent any damage and luckily the cake remained totally fine.

Looking over to the hole in the wall his mouth opened in dread at the sight of a dragon, a pegasus, and an earth pony rushing towards him.

Scooping up the cake platter, Silver Crunch hopped on the counter and held it over his head. The ground shook and rumbled at the trio ran past him, Silver nearly lost his balance but steeled his nerves and stood strong.

Taking a quick survey of his surroundings he was elated to see that nopony else was going to come running through here, Silver hopped off the counter and place the cake on the counter and turned around to get the cake topper only to spin around on his hind hooves when he heard the plate sliding off it's perch. Silver dived towards the cake as it fell and like a gymnast on trapeze he expertly caught it midair, perfectly preserving the cake.

He gently placed the cake topper in it's needed position and let go of the breath he didn't know he was holding.

"Wow that was close, I really thought this cake would have splattered on the floor like a slapstick comedy and I would have shouted to the heavens in pure rage over having all of my work ruined by random chance. But once again I came though in the end, now to take this cake to the pastry safe and ask Celestia for hazard pay." said Silver Crunch, contentedly carrying the cake away from danger.

Further down the makeshift hallway that the golem had created, Rainbow Dash was struggling to keep up with the beast as every time it smashed through a wall she had to slow down to avoid the debris. But it didn't last much longer as the golem slammed into a wall that was a bit too sturdy and broke apart into a pile of rocks, magic quickly vacating them.

"Oh no, that's not good." remarked Griffith.

Rainbow Dash thought the exact same thing, she was going too fast to stop herself in time and she slammed into the same wall.

Griffith checked to make sure that Dash was still in one piece. "Not what I planned but whatever works I guess. Do ya need some help there?"

"Gonna….kill...you." Dash said through pained breaths

"Well that answers that."

"TARGET IN SIGHT!" shouted a guard "MOVE MOVE MOVE!"

Griffith quickly dashed down the hallway to evade the now twelve ponies pursuing him minus one dragon.

Ember had stopped chasing him several rooms back as she pondered something.

"Wait why doesn't he just hide somewhere in the castle until the hour is up? He has the means, so why does he let us keep chasing him? unless…..THEY WANT US TO FOLLOW THEM!"

Ember took off towards the dungeons, she had to check on the prisoners immediately.

* * *

Speaking of Mia, Dylan, and Crystal. They all were listening to the sounds of chaos above them, all wondering what in the world the others were even doing up there in the first place.

"Sounds like a wicked party is going on up there. I wish I could have been a part of it." remarked Mia.

"You might just yet." said Crystal, pointing towards a hole that had just opened up in the wall.

A series of joyful screams began to resonate from the passage and moments later, out popped the baby dragon we all know and love, followed by Connor, and Saphria bringing up the rear.

Unfortunately given the speed they were going they all slammed into the iron bars of the cell, falling on top of each other in a heap.

"Owww! That hurt man!" Connor moaned.

"Now I realize why I never saw anypony use that passage anymore." Spike said, rubbing the bump forming on his head.

"Nevermind that, we found them! Mia! Dylan! Crystal!" said Saphria.

"Guys! You came for us!" said Mia "quick, get us out of here before the guards come back."

Saphria took out one of her blades and started to pick the lock with it "oh don't worry, Yam and Griffith are taking care of that."

"What are you talking about?" said Dylan.

"They goaded the princess and her allies into following them on a wild goose chase around the castle, while all the guards are busy chasing them we sneak in and get you guys out. Sorry it took so long, Artair forgot how to get to the dungeons." replied Saphria.

"Well better late than never, great plan Saphria."

"Actually Artair thought up the whole thing." said Connor, keeping an eye on the doors.

"Wait Artair made this plan?" said Dylan in disbelief.

Having gotten Mia's door open, Saphria set to work on Dylan's "he's a bit more clever than he lets on Dylan, be thankful he convinced Connor and Yam to come back for you."

He looked over towards Spike, it wasn't his normal look of resentment that he normally had for the runt, instead it was one of silent approval.

'Maybe he isn't as weak as I thought' Dylan said in his head, pushing his cell door open.

Spike pulled a blue hoodie out of his backpack and handed it to Crystal who smiled at the baby dragon as she slipped it back on. "Good job Artair" said the archer, tussling spike's head fin "good job."

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm ready to blow this bummer of a town." said Connor.

"We can't leave yet, they confiscated my bow and arrow set. I think they have it in a room a few floors up." said Crystal "you know how much it means to me Saphi."

"Okay, I'll come with you to-"

"You are going nowhere punk." a new voice said.

The group jumped back upon spotting the very displeased looking dragon lord staring them all down.

"WHERE DID YOU COME FROM?!" shouted Connor.

"Nice little trick you had going there, using two of your own as bait to distract us from the real threat. Very clever, but I'm smarter than the rest of them." said Ember "now Spike, come over here."

Spike started up at Ember and felt a deep feeling of sadness pooling up in his stomach; he knew Ember pretty well and the way she was looking at him didn't say she was angry, it said she was scorned, betrayed, and hurt as a friend from his actions. For a moment he actually considered coming over there but quickly snuffed out such thoughts, even if he thought that he could convince them to let him leave on his journey they would tear into his dragon friends for what they've done. He was in too deep to back out now.

"N-no." Spike said.

Ember raised an eyebrow at the dragon. "Spike as dragon lord I order you to come with me."

Spike shuffled his feet "I don't want to Ember."

Saphria quickly got between her friends and Ember "he said he doesn't want to come with you feral, back off."

"Spike whatever these dragons told you was a lie! They are backstabbing traitors who want nothing more than power in the world."

"Oh is that what they tell you?" said Saphria "because a bunch of arrogant horde dragons who are so smug that they love the smell of their own farts are a completely reliable source of information."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm saying your kind was on the wrong side of history princess. You were the power hungry warmongers, not us. The only reason were portrayed as such is because none of us were around to say otherwise."

Ember paused for a moment, scarily enough the dragon did make a good point, most of the elders did have plenty to gain from fabricating history to make them look like the heroes of the broken fang instead of the noble dragons and they certainly weren't above lying.

Ember just ignored the doubts in her mind "no! Stop trying to fill my head with lies, I'm going to rescue Spike from you and you can't stop me."

Saphria drew her blades "I know, but I have to at least try. For my honor and for my friends, Connor help everyone get to the safe, tell Griffith and Yam to bail out early, and then get out of the castle. I'll find a way to escape."

Crystal looked at her ninja friend in confusion "Wait didn't I do this in-"

"GET YOUR BUTTS IN GEAR!" shouted Saphria.

All at once ember lunged past Saphria, trying to grab spike away by force. But Connor was quicker, he managed to summon up a wall of plant roots that completely blocked Ember off from the rest of them. The dragon lord turned around to face her remaining adversary.

"I am going to kill you. You know that right?" said Ember.

"Wouldn't be the first time" replied Saphria.

Ember charged forward, slamming directing into Saphria, knocking her straight through the adjacent wall.

Behind Saphria's calm demeanor hid a very frightened soldier, one who feared for their life.

'This isn't any old horde dragon, this is the dragon lord, best of the best; she could easily rip you apart' Saphria thought as Ember slugged her in the face, sending the ninja flying into another wall.

'Who am I kidding, this dragon is gonna kill me….but if I have to go down I'm gonna do it fighting!' Saphria spat out some of the blood that had started to build in her mouth from the blow and let out a battle cry, leaping at the dragon lord with both blades drawn. She had promised to protect Artair no matter what and she intended to keep that promise.

* * *

"Come on, come on! I knew I should have packed more gadgets!" said Griffith rummaging through his pack while riding a hoverboard.

The amount of security in this place had turned out to be a lot heavier than Griffith could have ever imagined, he held out pretty well against the three initial ponies especially after the dragon lord disappeared. But when reinforcements started to appear is when things started going wrong.

Guards were coming at him from all sides and Griffith had burned through most of his tools very quickly just keeping them off of him. Now all he had left was this hoverboard that he made when he first got into skating.

Little known fact about Griffith was that he was an excellent skater, by no means one of the best on the Vlemm enclave but he could still pull off some pretty great tricks. It all started when his parents kicked him out of the house one day during his childhood to get him away from his inventions and make some real friends, while out and about he discovered the joys of skating and was instantly smitten but we're getting off topic.

His skills with the board is the only reason he had managed to evade them so far but they were rapidly closing in and it was getting harder to focus on staying balanced on the board, he needed a deus ex machina and he needed it right now.

Meanwhile Yam was heading straight towards Griffith's location just around the corner.

The glass shards that hit her midsection earlier had actually done more damage than she initially thought, her light blue vest was now soaked red with blood and she was starting to feel a bit light headed, vision blurring and focus waning. She tried the best she could to hold off the guard battalions that were now swarming her but they were starting to overwhelm her abilities with sheer numbers.

This was a stupid idea, there were so many ways this could have gone wrong and it did in every single one. Now she was likely going to bleed out, but she took some small comfort in knowing the rest of her friends were safe and sound.

"OH BALLS!" shouted Griffith, snapping Yam out of her thoughts.

The frost dragon looked over just in time to see Griffith slam right into her, sending her to the ground in a hard belly flop which only increased the bleeding and him straight off of his hoverboard into a decorative column, leaving a sizeable crack on the stone.

Slamming head first onto the ground Griffith was dazed but far from out of the game. But in a few moments he might as well have been.

The crack began to spread across the pillar, it was collapsing under its own weight and tipping right towards Griffith.

Yam looked up from her spot on the floor but was helpless to do anything, by that point she was lying down in a pool of her own blood and was too weak to move, all she could do was watch in horror as the upper part of the column broke free from its base and slam down directly onto Griffith's left arm, sparks flew out as the prosthetic was crushed under the massive weight on the stone and Griffith yelled in pain.

That got Yam up and moving. Acting on pure instincts she summoned up the last of her reserve strength and created massive towering walls of thick ice that blocked off all the advancing forces, at least for now. Then she turned around and limped over to Griffith who was still screaming.

"MY ARM, MY FRIGGING ARM IT HURTS SO BAD! I CAN'T STAND IT!"

"C-c-can you move it? The pillar I mean" Yam weakly said, trying not to blackout.

"NO! MY ARM IS STUCK! YOU-YOU GOTTA LEAVE WITHOUT ME!" Griffith shouted back

"NO!" Yam pleaded, putting pressure on her heavily bleeding wounds "I CAN'T LEAVE YOU, NOT LIKE THIS!"

"HOW DO WE GET ME LOOSE THEN? THOSE GUARDS ARE ALREADY BREAKING THROUGH!"

Yam looked over to see that indeed the guards were starting to chip through her ice walls and were progressing fast, she didn't have much time left so she went over the options in her head: she was too weak to move the pillar by herself, if she called for help they would be captured before it ever arrived, and she didn't have enough magic to freeze the pillar enough to shatter it, so what did that leave?

Yam looked at the part of Griffith's prosthetic that attached it to the rest of his body, eyes widening in the sheer horror of what she would have to do. Griffith followed her gaze and quickly realized what she was considering.

The mechanic looked up at Yam and gave her a silent nod, begging her to just get it over with as fast as she could, there was no other way.

Yam swallowed the vomit in the back of her throat and set to work, cold quickly encapsulated the joint and started to freeze it, ice crystals beginning to form on the area. Griffith had to undo his belt and bite down into the thick leather to keep himself from screaming at his arm was slowly frozen solid. It felt like his left side was being roasted alive, at least the last time he lost an arm like this he was unconscious for most of the time but here he was awake for every single moment.

"Almost done. Just hold out a little longer!" said Yam through sobs, she couldn't believe she had to do this.

Eventually the arm was completely encased in ice, which was Griffith's cue to start pulling. The pain of having his arm frozen was nothing compared to what he was experiencing now, it was unending, agonizing suffering in its purest form. Soon enough a snapping sound filled the room alongside sickening squelching noises as the limb came loose from it's socket.

Griffith dropped the belt out of his mouth when he let out a loud roar of pain as the arm finally broke off from the rest of his body; the stump that was left behind was now bleeding heavily from the violent procedure, so Griffith picked up his now chewed belt and tied it tightly around his arm to staunch the flow.

He then used his remaining arm to throw the now passed out Yam over his shoulder and started running, body operating on nothing more than adrenaline, he had to get them out of there or they were going to die very quickly and very painfully.

* * *

Further down the same hallway were the remaining dragons sans Saphria, they were all battered and bruised apart from Spike. They had encountered heavy resistance on the way up and barely managed to fight their way to the safe where Crystal's weapons were being held, Mia was able to get the combination by using her speed aura to try every possible code until she found the right one. Now they were just trying to find a way out while also fighting off the guards that tried to attack them.

"Artair where's the exit?!" shouted Dylan, letting out another blinding flash of light aimed at the guards dive bombing them.

"Right through here we just have to take the next- DEAR CELESTIA! GRIFFITH! YAM! WHAT HAPPENED?!' screamed Spike when the pair came into view.

"Got caught under a pillar, Yam had to freeze my arm off to get me loose. No idea about her cut, but we need to get out of here now! I don't know how much longer she can hold up, she's lost a lot of blood!"

Crystal could only stare in shock at her friend's bleeding form, seeing Yam in such a state stirred something in the dragon, something she hasn't felt for a long time….not since that horrible day.

"Connor, can you make us an exit?"

"What?" said the plantmancer, drawing his gaze away from the injured dragons.

"A way out, you need to use your plant powers to make an exit for us and you need to do it now. Otherwise Yam isn't gonna make it in time."

Connor nodded, he had the perfect thing in mind. Summoning every ounce of power he had, Connor focused on the plants of canterlot garden, gathering them together into a large form, one that would save them.

The rest of the guards and the mane six were on them in moments, but were hesitant to take them down seeing the heavily injured Griffith and Yam.

But Twilight wasn't so easily discouraged, not after what they've done "Property damage, kidnapping, assault on my friends and the royal guard. Your streak ends here and now. Hand over Spike or we are going to have you all arrested"

"Really? My friend is bleeding to death right now and all you can think about is your precious baby dragon? You make me want to puke." Crystal spat

"She's a criminal!"

"And she's also a living being Twilight, like you and me! Yeah she isn't a saint, none of us are, but she doesn't deserve to die for what she's done!" shouted Crystal, starting to cry "none of this was supposed to happen! This should have been a quick and clean mission where we just scooped up Artair and returned him home safe and sound, but then you all selfishly got involved and we had to act; we didn't kidnap Spike, he came with us willingly Twilight and we've treated him with nothing but kindness and respect, never tried to hurt him or make him do anything he didn't want to! Why are you so dead set on saving him from a threat that doesn't exist?!"

"You could have asked us! We would have understood, let him go!"

"No you wouldn't have! You would have called us liars, cast us out, tried to exploit us for your own gain like every other creature does. Show a little kindness and we get ourselves slaughtered in return, that's how it's always been! It's better if the world doesn't know about us!" Crystal yelled. "WHY CAN'T YOU JUST LEAVE US ALONE?!"

The flashbacks started hitting her, the screams, the pain she felt, the wicked smile on that cruel satyr's face. Crystal was about to draw her bow and do something she would never forgive herself for when a large flower burst into the room.

"Ride's here! Let's go!" said Connor, picking up Spike and hopping into the ovary of the plant, the rest of the group quickly following.

'No' thought Twilight as she dove for her number one assistant.

'No' Twilight repeated as the petals closed around them

'No no NO!' Twilight thought as the flower descended the side of the castle.

"They're making a break for it! Everypony mobilize, those dragons cannot escape the city!"

* * *

Down in the gardens, Ember slammed Saphira's back over her knee, causing the purple dragon to yelp in pain.

There was no doubt that Saphria was a much more skilled fighter than the dragon lord not to mention much more well equipped, but Ember far exceeded her in physical strength and Saphria simply couldn't keep up with her savagery.

She was getting destroyed, her vision growing dark, blood filling her mouth. She had given it her all, got in several good strikes against Ember that showed in several bleeding cuts but it wasn't enough to stop the assault. Eventually her body gave way and she was left at Ember's mercy, of which the dragon lord had none.

Ember picked up Saphria by the throat and began to choke her out.

"You come in here. You disrespect me, attack me and my friends, try to take that baby dragon, that baby dragon that I love! The noble dragons will never rise again and I will personally make sure of that!" Ember said, hatred dripping from every word.

Spike came running into the gardens, set on finding Saphria and getting her to the others so that they may escape; finding Ember strangling her to death was not what he wanted to see.

"EMBER STOP IT! YOU'RE KILLING HER!" Spike screamed.

As Ember turned to explain why she had to do this, she saw Spike's face and all of her rage and hatred melted away. Spike looked at her with fear, like she was a monster, one that would bring him harm; he was looking at her the way other dragons looked at her father and she hated it. Then the rest of the haze began to clear up and she turned her gaze back towards the dragon she had up by the throat and realized she was about to execute one of her own species. Noble dragon or horde dragons they were still both dragons.

Ember instantly dropped Saphria out of her grasp, letting the ninja fall back to the ground where she started sucking air back into her lungs while spitting up blood.

"I-I didn't...I never meant….I-I was just so angry..."

Ember tried to move towards the baby dragon for a hug but Spike backed away from her in fear

"Spike please...d-don't do this to me. Not now." the dragon lord weakly pleaded

Spike looked around him, at the damaged castle, at his friend silently pleading for forgiveness, at his other friend bleeding on the ground, all the chaos and destruction finally made him consider something that had never occurred to him until now: the effect this whole journey was having on Equestria.

He kept telling himself that they would understand in the end, that they would forgive them for what he did when he returned but seeing all of this around him….this wasn't the way, it wasn't right, it never was. He still cared for his new noble dragon friends but if he kept this up he would lose all of his friends in Equestria.

He knew what he had to do.

Spike ran up to Ember and gave her the tightest, most loving hug he possibly could and she squeezed him like a stuffed animal, as if he would disappear the moment he let go.

"LET ARTAIR GO!" Dylan yelled, breaking the brief silence "DON'T MAKE ME-"

"NO! DYLAN DON'T! SHE'S MY FRIEND!" Spike cried out, shielding Ember with his body

"FRIEND?! ARTAIR SHE TRIED TO KILL SAPHI!"

"I KNOW! JUST-just let me talk to her. Let me explain things to her, I promise I can convince her to let me go with you just give me a few minutes." begged Spike

Dylan wanted to blast Ember, she deserved it for what she did to Saphira but at the same time he was overcome with a conflicting feeling of respect for the dragon standing up for her.

Lowering his arms he huffed "five minutes, that's all I can give you Artair."

"That's all I need."

The baby dragon then turned to Ember

"Ember…." spike said, searching for the right words "I know you care about me."

'More than you could ever realize' Ember thought to herself

"I know you don't want to see me leave, but you've got to let me go."

"Why Spike? Aren't you happy here?"

"I am, really I am but….but this is something I just can't pass up."

"Why?"

Spike sighed and stepped back from Ember, spreading his arms.

"Ember look at me. What do you see?"

"I see a caring dra-"

"No, on the outside. Look at me like this is the first time meeting me, what do you see?"

"A-a baby dragon?"

Spike nodded "that's right, a puny little baby dragon who can't protect himself or his friends from anything or anyone who might want to hurt him. That's why I have to go with these guys, so I can become stronger, so I can protect you all."

"Spike you've done plenty without-"

"I'm not done ember." Spike cleared his throat "all my life I've always felt alone, an outsider. When I first came to ponyville, mothers would pull their foals away from me like I was a monster. Even now I still get looks from ponies because of what I am. I can't go to the dragon lands, I'm too pony-like to fit in there either, the great dragon migration proved that. I'm a misshapen puzzle piece that spend so much time shaving off it's own edges to try and fit in where it didn't belong that eventually it couldn't fit in anywhere. The noble dragons are different, they seem to be fellow outsiders like me, if I go with them I can finally find where I belong in this world."

"Spike-"

"And then there's my family, Ember in the last few weeks I've found out I've got a brother and parents who are all still alive, Twilight is a great friend but I just can't see her as my mother no matter how badly I want it too, Celestia's fine but I almost never get to see her. If I go to the Vlemm Enclave I might finally have what I've wanted my whole life...a family, a real one Ember. If you thought you could find your real mother, wouldn't you head to the ends of the earth for her?"

Ember looked down, beginning to cry for a whole new reason only for Spike to nudge her chin up with his claw.

"Look I know it hurts to let go but if I don't, I might be stuck where I am forever. Yes I know these guys went about it all wrong, I'm not trying to justify their behavior. But I wouldn't have let them get this far if I didn't think they just wanted to protect me, if you knew what they had riding on me you'd do whatever it took too. Please Ember I trust them with my life. I need you to trust in my trust, please I promise I'll fix everything when it's over; I'll force the noble dragons to help me if I have to. Just let me go"

Ember wanted to scream, she wanted to cry, she wanted to hold spike and never let him go. But hearing him say it, say that he trusts the noble dragons with such sincerity and passion, lay his soul bare for her to see. She couldn't help but be convinced to his side.

She had to let him go. But not after another hug.

"Promise you'll come back someday."

"I will Ember, I swear I will."

"And try not to forget about us no matter what happens or how strong you become, always remember your friends." Ember said.

The two separated from the hug and Ember sadly chuckled

"R-remember when you first hugged me?"

"Yeah, I do. At the end of the gauntlet of fire, you took it so awkwardly."

"I did but I also felt… I mean that was when I started to….what I'm trying to say is…" Ember kept stumbling over her own sentences, trying to just say those three little words but found that it was next to impossible.

Ember decided to throw all caution into the wind and just show him.

Seizing Spike's chubby cheeks into her claws, she brought his face to hers and deeply kissed him on the lips. There was no tongue, no swapping of spit, no lust whatsoever. This was a kiss of love and passion, the only one she'd get for the next few years.

Pulling away from the dazed dragon, Ember leaned down and whispered into Spike's ear fin "see ya round pony boy."

The dragon lord then took off too the skies disappearing behind the clouds. Spike was left behind in awe, touching a claw to his lips he could only say one thing:

"Wow"

"Heh. So the dragon lord has a thing for you? Good on ya man that is a fine female specimen for a horde dragon, high five" Said Dylan.

"Actually I'd like to stay like this for just a little longer please." Spike's voice could barely qualify as a whisper, he was sitting on cloud nine right now

"We gotta split though, the rest of the dragons are waiting for us back on the ship right now. How about I just carry you there?"

"Okay, sure, whatever you say."

"To be young and in love, ain't it grand." Said Dylan, picking spike up in one arm and Saphria with the other, spreading his wings and taking to the air.

* * *

"Oh no. Not Saphi too!" Exclaimed Crystal. "I should have been with her to fight that dragon!"

"Wouldn't have made a difference. She's a lot stronger than all of us. Better she only got one, at least Artair convinced her to leave us be." Dylan replied, handing Saphria over to Connor to take to the med bay.

"I was gonna ask about that. I'm guessing it has something to do with the dopey smile?"

"Yep. Artair's first kiss apparently."

"Tell me when we're not about to be killed are we clear?" Said Crystal

"Crystal." Mere seconds later Dylan realized what Crystal had just pulled. "I hate it when you make that joke"

"Which is why I love it so much. Griffith can you get us out of here with one arm?"

"Of course I can, once we're far enough from the city I'll disengage the cloaking device so we can get home as fast as possible." Replied the mechanic

Seeing his younger brother's bandaged, bloody stump where his arm used to be snapped Spike out his emotional high. Bringing feelings of regret to the forefront of his mind.

"Griffith, I-"

"It's fine artair." Griffith coldly responded

"But-"

"It's. Fine. Just let it go."

Spike shrunk away like a wraith in the sunlight. He saved his friends but at what cost?

The trip out of the city was spent in total silence, even Mia was feeling down from the day's events.

After a few more hours the noble dragons had traveled far enough to the point where they thought they were safe and dropped the cloaking device.

Then all tatarus broke loose. A series of projectiles impacted against the ship, sending it careening to one side.

"What the deuce was that?!" shouted Griffith, using his remaining arm to steady himself.

"Wonderbolts! Coming in hot!" Spike yelled to his brother.

Having seen the noble dragons take to the air, Rainbow Dash enlisted the help of the wonderbolts to get spike back. They had all waited in reserve for the airship to appear on the horizon and when it did they began to assault the metal bird. But they weren't alone, Celestia and Luna had also joined in on the assault; the princesses didn't appreciate having their home trashed in the manner that it was and gladly agreed to help bring the ship down. There was no mercy, no quarter given, no thought of the souls on board. After the events in Canterlot Castle all they wanted to do was bring the noble dragons down.

The Violet Dawn was a well built airship but was never meant to withstand an attack of this magnitude, warnings began to flash on every screen.

"Defensive weapons down! shields down! Hydraulics down! We're losing everything here, we've got to retaliate!" Griffith yelled

"No! We've hurt enough ponies today. We have to cut and run before this ship falls out of the sky!" Connor said, grabbing Griffith.

"But I spend years designing and building this, it's my greatest achievement! Those ponies already cost me an arm, I won't let them have the Violet Dawn!" Griffith hissed

Right then all the screens merged into one single image:

 **CRITICAL DAMAGE TO ALL SYSTEMS, EXPLOSION IMMINENT. IMMEDIATE EVACUATION IS URGED**

Griffith slumped to his knees in defeat.

"No. Not my baby."

Crystal grabbed the grief stricken dragon by the arm and dragged him down the hall towards the lifeboat, Griffith remained completely limp still crying over his loss.

"Mia! get Yam and Saphria from the med bay. We're bailing out!" Crystal said

The speedster gave a quick salute and dashed off in the direction of her two friends.

The ship started to groan and bend under the outward force, the warning alarms blaring louder.

The Paragons swiftly piled into the lifeboat and strapped in.

The lifeboat itself was a small glider for use in emergency situations, it was made for speed and distance but was never meant to stay in the air for long. For situations like this it was also equipped with a small cloaking device to prevent destruction after being deployed.

"Is that everyone?" Asked Dylan

Every dragon let out a chorus of confirmation.

"Time to abandon ship. Goodbye Violet Dawn, we knew ye well." Said Crystal, yanking on the release cord and sending the glider flying away from the doomed vessel towards the frozen north.

Where they would end up after this….only time would tell.

* * *

Twilight was flying around the airship, a cocky smile on her face. They had finally gotten the drop on the noble dragons for once, they weren't going to escape their punishment anymore. The girls would get spike back, the noble dragons would be imprisoned, and everything would go back to normal like it always did, all she had to do now was wait for the noble dragons to jump out of the airship and the Wonderbolts would seize them up.

"Any second now they'll jump out."

The airship began to smoke and Twilight started to worry

"Aaaany second now."

The airship burst into flames and started falling out of the sky.

"Come on Spike, just jump out. I know you're still in there."

Then the airship exploded into a massive fireball that crashed into the ground in a spectacular display and Twilight's heart almost came up into her mouth.

She didn't see any dragons jump out….

They had just killed Spike and at least seven others in a blind fury.

She looked towards Rainbow Dash in the distance and saw she had a similar horrified expression.

Then she looked over at Celestia, the princess looked absolutely crushed, like somepony had torn out the very soul from her body.

They had wanted nothing more to keep Spike safe, to protect him like the good friends they were and ended up getting him killed all because they lost control of themselves.

What have they done….


	12. blame, regret, and loss

"All my fault. This is all my fault" Spike muttered to himself, clutching his knees to his chest

It had been mere hours since the noble dragons had staged a daring jailbreak in Canterlot Castle, hours since they had helped Dylan, Mia, and Crystal escape from their pony captors, hours since they had lost nearly everything.

The glider had run out of momentum in the middle of the frozen north, several miles from the Crystal Empire and crash landed in the mountains. All of the safety features installed on the glider had kept them all safe from any further harm, as it was designed for crash landings, but it didn't help their situation much.

For now they had a small camp set up, using bits and pieces of the glider as a makeshift shelter that was being occupied by Yam and Saphria who were both still passed out. The rest were sitting around a bonfire that Griffith had somehow managed to get started with what little he had on hand, none of them were speaking at all and who could blame them; Things had gotten pretty bad for all of them in an instant and morale was at an all time low.

Dylan was chowing down on some turkey jerky from the emergency supplies, it was important he keep his strength up, when he noticed Spike was muttering something to himself.

Leaning in closer, Dylan could hear that Spike was blaming himself for what happened and it made him frown.

Spike had convinced everyone to come back to rescue them despite there being a lot of good reason not to, he had formulated an effective plan to get them all out without harming anyone, he had risked life and limb for his friends and Dylan admired that in a dragon; it showed loyalty, grit, and strength, true strength that the noble dragons possessed and here he was putting himself down. Dylan couldn't have that.

"Something wrong Artair?" Asked Dylan.

"Everything" Said Spike, wiping away his tears.

Dylan looked at Spike with a perplexed look.

"This whole thing I mean. From the moment I left to now, it's just been one mishap after another and it's all my fault. Maybe I should have never left." Replied Spike

"Hey none of this is on you Artair." Said Dylan "you made the right call leaving home, otherwise you never might get to realize your full potential. It's the ponies' fault for getting involved."

"But What if I was up front with them? What if I had just explained the situation to them instead of just running off like a coward? When they saw that note it must have destroyed them, like I had ripped their very hearts out. I should have known they would have intervened, it's what they do."

"You had your reasons for keeping this under wraps Artair. I'm sure of it." Said Dylan, tearing another bite out of his preserved meat.

"Yeah but I'm starting to wonder if I'm even keeping the promises I made to myself. The whole reason I even left in the first place was for their sake; next to them I felt weak, like I wouldn't be able to help them on their adventures, like I wouldn't be able to protect them if something came that was too much for them to handle, I felt like I was just a pathetic sidekick. I figured that if I went away, if I joined up with the noble dragons, I would become stronger, that I wouldn't be so useless anymore, I could protect my friends for a change instead of having them do all the work. But ever since I started traveling with you guys it's brought nothing but pain and misery to everybody I care about, at first I just tried to ignore it and pretend it wasn't happening or that it wasn't a big deal since they'd understand in the end, but now with everything we've done, all that I turned to a blind eye to, I don't know if the ends really justify the means anymore."

"Stop it. You have done nothing wrong at all Artair, all that bad stuff is on us. Besides what could you have done to stop us? If you got in between our battles you could have gotten seriously hurt and negotiation tends to fall apart in situations like this. You've got good moral fiber but you're not much of a fighter, no offense."

"None taken" Spike replied with a weak shrug

"My point is that you shouldn't blame yourself for any of this. You've had almost no control over the events that have transpired over the past month; this whole thing was never meant to go down like this but that's the way the dice fell so we had to adapt to and overcome the challenges that presented themselves, that's the noble dragon way. Yes we may have handled most of said challenges poorly, but that's the price you pay when you have to think on the fly like this."

Spike sighed "still, I can't help but feel that I'm at least a little responsible for this mess. I signed the contract, I left in the night, I started this."

"You got that right" Griffith muttered.

Dylan's head snapped up, gone was the comforting older brother figure and in its place was his usual aggressive self. "Got something you'd like to share tinkerer?"

"You bet your bucket I do. Artair's right, this is all his fault."

The rest of the Paragons directed their gazes at Spike's younger brother; even Connor, who was looking over Saphria and Yam, looked over with an incredulous glare.

"What did you just say?" Hissed Dylan

"I said this is Artair's fault, what did I stutter?" Said Griffith

Dylan glared at the green dragon "Choose your next words very carefully Griffith…"

"Yeah. Don't want to say anything we'll regret later." Said Mia

"Oh don't coddle him. We all know it was his stupid plan and his stupid pony friends that got us into this mess in the first place." Griffith spat in spike's direction

"GRIFFITH!" Every dragon shouted

"Well it's true! If that dumb alicorn had left him alone we'd be home right now and all would be well, but instead we've had to spend weeks running around like criminals because they won't leave us be!"

"Artair didn't want them to come after him! They-" argued Crystal

"He might as well have with how poorly he handled his goodbye, why did he even leave a note for them at all?! Why don't you just put a 'chase me' sign on our backs while you're at it?"

"Shut up Griffith." Mia said, her normally cheery tone quickly fleeting.

"Make me airhead! I'm just saying what we're all thinking! It was his dumb ideas that got us here!" Shouted Griffith

"And you could have come up with a better plan?!" Said Crystal, standing up from her seat.

"I'm a super genius so yeah, I could have! Sure it might have taken some time but if we went with any plan I came up with then we'd be a lot better off!"

At this point Spike was nearly crying, now on top of everything else his only brother hated him.

"I'm warning you Griffith. Lay off." Said Mia, gritting her teeth together.

"Oh what are you gonna do, huh? In case you haven't noticed we're stranded out here in the back end of nowhere with no ride and the entire pony kingdom hunting us down, we've barely got any food or water, two of us are out cold, and I'm down an arm!" Ranted Griffith "we're screwed! And it's all your fault Artair! You know what? Maybe I was better off when I didn't have a bro-"

Griffith was abruptly cut off by Mia savagely tackling him into the snow, wailing on him with a storm like fury. She couldn't stand how cruel Griffith was being, so what if Artair messed up? We all make mistakes but that didn't give Griffith the right to disown his only brother, especially in such a time of need. Mia didn't care about the long term consequences about the beat down she was delivering, Griffith's rant was what pushed her over the edge after everything else that had happened, she just wanted to hurt him for what he said.

Having only one arm meant that Griffith couldn't really do anything against Mia's assault, he could only hold up his remaining limb as a pathetic defense against the epic thrashing he was on the receiving end of; he could feel his nose crack and begin to bleed, Bruises forming from each blow. Mia wasn't the most muscular noble dragon, she was actually pretty scrawny, but she more than made up for it with how fast she could pop someone in the face.

Connor rushed over to the two and intervened. The plantmancer grabbed a hold of Mia by her arms and yanked her off the poor dragon, holding her back as she thrashed around.

"HE'S HAD ENOUGH MIA! CHILL! CHILL!" Shouted Connor

"NO! I'VE HAD IT WITH TODAY! I AM COLD, TIRED, AND HUNGRY! I DON'T NEED THIS JERK MAKING THINGS WORSE FOR EVERYBODY! LET ME GO!" Screamed the speedster

She thrashed around for a good five minutes before her energy ran dry and she relaxed in Connor's arms, panting in exhaustion.

Griffith hadn't gotten up from his spot on the ground, he was too busy clutching his nose to stop the bleeding. The mechanic's face was bloody and bruised from the blows and his goggles had been knocked off into the snow.

Crystal helped him to his feet with a frown, glaring at the teenage dragon.

"Maybe next time you'll think before you open your mouth buttwipe. Let's get you patched up." Said Crystal, leading Griffith towards the shelter.

Seeing that the infighting had been dealt with, Dylan turned to face Spike and recoiled when he saw the baby dragon bawling his eyes out. He wasn't much for comforting others, that was more Crystal and Saphira's area of expertise. But in this case he had no choice but to step up.

He patted Spike on the shoulder, making the baby dragon look up at him with bloodshot eyes.

"Hey, you want to go for a walk with me?" Said Dylan in the softest tone he could manage.

Spike wiped away some of the snot leaking out of his nose "where?"

"Anywhere but here."

* * *

The two had made it up to a large cliff overlooking a deep frozen crevasse, the meger sun rays piercing the storm clouds above reflected perfectly off the ice to give the entire area a nice shine. The only sound came from the gentle snowfall and the cold wind whipping around them, it was just the right balance of peaceful and beautiful.

In other words, it was the perfect spot for the discussion they would need to have.

Dylan took a seat on the edge and patted the snow next to him, motioning Spike to join him. The baby dragon nodded and plopped down next to him.

The two of them sat in silence, admiring the view of the area from their vantage point and all its glory.

"I'm sorry Artair." said Dylan

"Sorry?" said Spike, turning towards Dylan "sorry for what?"

"For having to hear that from your brother, Griffith was completely out of line to say what he did."

Spike sighed "maybe he's right. I did get us all the way out here."

Dylan pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration "Artair for the last time this isn't your fault, you're the only one here with clean claws. Stop blaming yourself for forces out of your control."

"It doesn't matter, either way my brother hates me now."

"Oh come on Artair, Griffith doesn't hate you. He's just a bit upset and needs to vent. Look at it from his perspective: he lost his arm and his ship, two of his most prized possessions, the Violet Dawn was like a son to him so it's destruction hit him pretty hard and you just happened to get caught up in his anger. I'm not saying what he did was okay in any way, but just don't take it personally." said Dylan

"But I-"

"Zip it Artair! You are not the bad guy here, get that through your head! I swear if you don't stop beating yourself up right now, I'll start beating you up!"

Spike focused his gaze back out on the horizon, not giving a reply to Dylan.

Dylan sighed internally 'come on Dylan, he pulled your butt out of the fire. The least you could do is find a way to be there for him.'

Matching Spike's gaze out in the distance, Dylan suddenly knew exactly what he needed to say.

"Hey Artair. Do you know what my first thought was when we met?" said Dylan

"No. what?" the baby dragon replied

"Wow this dragon is pathetic."

For some reason Spike chuckled at that.

"I know. When I first laid my eyes on you I thought you were nothing more than a weak little hatching who didn't deserve to be in the royal family, one that would become a quick liability." said Dylan

"I'm sensing a but in there."

"Butts are for sitting" Dylan said with a laugh "oh god Crystal must be rubbing of on me."

"You aren't gonna start making puns are you?" asked Spike

"Of course not. Between you and me it's actually really hard to make puns on the fly, Crystal is a poetic genius but don't tell her I said that. Anyways back to what I was saying; I thought you were nothing at all. Thank Bahumut you proved me wrong back in that pony city, Canterlot right?"

"I did?"

"Oh yeah, sure it was a group effort getting us out of there but you're the one who came up with the plan to get us out. You were one of the ones who wanted to come back for us, you risked everything, life and limb, to get us back and while there were losses it was still a success."

"I guess...what are you trying to say?"

Dylan jabbed a finger in spike's direction "it means that you've paid your dues Artair, proved yourself. You had every reason to turn tail and run off but you decided to come back and that shows loyalty. What I'm saying is that you've earned my trust and respect, you are the prince of the noble dragons and I'll have your back right until the very end of it all; not as a guard but as a friend."

Spike was at a loss for words, here was a dragon who had a problem with him from the moment they met who saw him as a child and now he was pouring his heart out to him, showing that he would be an ally to him forever and always.

All he could really say was "thanks, Dylan. That means a lot coming from you."

"Just making sure you knew where we stood after it all. Which brings me to my next point: the prophecy." said Dylan

Spike blinked in confusion "the prophecy?"

"Yes. see there is actually a lot more to this whole thing than you ever realized, we were going to wait until you got to the Vlemm Enclave but now seems like a good a time as any: Back when the noble dragons were first establishing the Vlemm Enclave they had discovered a buried temple written in ancient draconic, no dragon knew who or what made it but it had clearly been around a lot longer than any of the remaining noble dragons had. Strangely enough It had foretold of our loss in the war of the Broken Fang and the subsequent collapse of the dragon kingdom but that's beside the point. The most prominent thing was 'the first laid son', a mystical dragon who was a direct descendant of the royal family, that's Frinad and Layla, who would grow up to become the champion of all noble dragons; his powers making all others pale in comparison. It was written that he would rise up and restore the kingdom of the noble dragon to it's noble glory and strike down the great evil that would rise and threaten the world in an epic battle. Of course that's where the whole timeline gets a little murky, it doesn't outright state how the kingdom is going to be restored nor whether or not the champion survives his battle with the great evil or even how that great evil is going to manifest itself; all it says is that 'the first laid son' will be the one leading the charge in all of those events. Now originally it was believed that Griffith was the 'first laid son' since he was the only living descendant of Frinad and Layla but it quickly became apparent from both his auras and mannerisms that he wasn't the one foretold in the prophecy, which led most of us to believe that the whole thing was a sham. But when Yam discovered your existence in the frozen north, there was a renewed interest in the legend and the noble dragons came to the conclusion that you were 'the first laid son' that was meant to lead us into a new age of glory and with your observed feats it wasn't that hard to believe. That's why we've needed to fight so hard to get you to the Vlemm Enclave: the entire future of our people and by extent, the world, rests on your shoulders. Without you, our kingdom may be headed for destruction and our legacy snuffed out while the world burns." Dylan explained

Spike was dumbstruck to say the least, it's not everyday you find out that you are the chosen one of some ancient prophecy created long before you were even conceived. More so to know that the hopes and dreams of an entire race literally rested on your shoulders. It was….it was too much, this was a bomb that he was in no way ready for, his breathing became quick and shallow, sweat began to run down his sides. He was about to have a small panic attack when Dylan firmly slapped him on the back to snap him out of it; taking in a deep breath, Spike looked up at the yellow dragon.

"Hey don't stress yourself out over this. You've still got at least a few years and a lot of training to go before you gotta make good on those events, it's not like you have to do it next week or anything. Just relax and enjoy the calm while it lasts, alright? The Paragons and I will be backing you up the whole time." Dylan said, rubbing Spike's back in a soothing manner.

Spike's anxiety started to fall, the ball in his stomach shrinking, before he finally calmed himself back down.

"Sorry, it's just a lot to take it; I mean I'm actually the chosen one for once! Not just the guy who's in the right place at the right time." Spike turned to Dylan "but thanks for the pep talk, I feel so much better now."

"Good to hear it, now how about we head back to camp and get that apology from Griffith?" Dylan asked, standing back up

"You aren't going to beat one out of him are you?"

Dylan's eyes nervously darted from left to right "no promises Artair."

"Alright let's...wait do you hear that?" said Spike as a faint cracking sound began to travel through the air.

"Yeah I do. where's that-" Dylan never got to finish as the piece of ice they were standing on suddenly crumbled beneath their feet, sending both dragons into a freefall.

Dylan, having a taller build, managed to reach up and grab onto the remnants of the ledge and dig his claws in. Spike wasn't so lucky.

The baby dragon's stubby arms missed completely and he started falling, acting on instinct Spike tried to open his wings and break out of the tailspin; but on the way down his head collided with a jagged ice collum jutting out of the wall of the cliff and Spike was knocked out cold, his body going limp midair and disappearing into the chasm below.

"ARTAIR! NO!" Dylan screamed, immediately spreading his wings and diving down after his friend.

Right then mother earth got in one of her moods and let loose a massive snow storm that came out of seemingly nowhere, the harsh wind blowing Dylan into the cliff where he made impact with a loud slam.

"OH COME ON! NOT NOW!" shouted Dylan. He grit his teeth through the pain and beat his wings against the wind as hard as he could and flew down into the chasm all while the snow drift got thicker and thicker.

"ARTAIR! ARTAIR!" Dylan frantically called out "WHERE ARE YOU?!" the dragon rushed around like a scared father looking for their child. He flew all over the chasm, searching high and low for the baby dragon, screaming his name in the vain hope that he would call out.

But soon the combined force of the wind and the thickness of the snow became far more than Dylan could handle and he was forced to fly out of the crevasse empty handed, lest he become just as trapped as Spike likely was.

He was in a full blown panic now, he finally comes to respect the dragon and honor him as a member of the royal family only to lose him like this. Spike was one of them now and he wasn't about to let a fellow noble dragon die in the snow, he needed to get the rest of the Paragons out here right now. As he flew back to the camp there was a huge question pressing on his mind:

"What am I going to tell them?"

* * *

Griffith stared at his stump of a limb in sadness and let out a sigh. He had finally let the haze brought about by his rage clear up from his mind and once it was gone, it soon gave way to regret.

He couldn't believe he had blown up like that back there, sure he had lost the Violet Dawn and his arm but that didn't mean he had to take it out on Artair. Dear Bahamut what kind of a little brother was he to talk to his older brother like that, Artair was already miserable enough without him making it worse. Griffith felt like pure scum right now.

But it wasn't hopeless, Artair didn't seem like one to hold a grudge, Griffith was positive that if he apologized to his brother and did his absolute best to make it up to him in any way possible (maybe he could build Artair his own hoverboard or something) he'd be willing to let bygones be bygones.

Which is why he was watching the direction that Dylan left with Artair in great anticipation, so he could be ready with his long apology as soon as his brother returned. He had to move into the shelter when the storm picked up but he would gladly deal with a bit of frost if it meant getting Artair to forgive him.

However, Griffith was greatly confused when a distraught Dylan was the one to return without Artair anywhere near him.

The light dragon landed in a heap in front of the shelter, completely out of breath and clearly panicking; that combined with Artair's absence made Griffith start to panic.

"Dylan." Griffith calmly stated "where is my brother?"

"ICE CLIFF- GAVE WAY- FELL INTO CAVE- COULDN'T FIND HIM" Dylan sputtered out through pants.

"Slow down, what happened?" asked Griffith with concern

Dylan sucked in a deep breath of oxygen and started to speak "I was giving spike a pep talk to make him feel better about today when the cliff we were sitting on crumbled beneath us and he fell off! I saw him hit his head on the way down and he landed somewhere in a chasm!"

"WHAT?! WHY THE TARTARUS DIDN'T YOU LOOK FOR HIM?!" Griffith shouted, now in a full panic.

"YOU THINK THAT WASN'T THE FIRST THING I TRIED?! I SEARCHED HIGH AND LOW FOR HIM BUT THE STORM GOT TOO FIERCE AND I HAD TO BAIL!" Dylan yelled back.

The rest of the noble dragons took notice of the pair's outburst and started to listen in

"DYLAN HE COULD BE DEAD RIGHT NOW!"

"I KNOW THAT! THAT'S WHY I NEED YOUR HELP TO FIND HIM! I'M JUST ONE DRAGON, I CAN'T COVER THE ENTIRE AREA BY MYSELF!"

"Well we definitely can't do it now guys." said Connor, pointing outside.

The storm was now in a full fury, the entire area was completely whited out, you couldn't see more than a few yards ahead.

"If we go out there we could get lost or worse, dead. I care just as much about the little dude as you both do but we can't search for him in this storm." explained Connor

"Well than what do you suggest we do?" said Griffith

"Since Yam is going to be out for a few more hours, there's no way to clear the storm so we're just gonna have to wait it out." Connor said forlornly

Dylan plopped down in defeat "great, one of my friends could be lying in a ditch somewhere and I can't even do anything about it. Just when I was starting to like the guy too."

Griffith didn't utter a word at all, on the inside he was completely breaking apart. He had driven his brother off with his outburst and now Artair could be dead because of it. He had basically sent Artair to his doom with the last memory of his little brother being one of rage and hatred.

He had lost his ship, he had lost his arm, and now he had lost his only brother. Everything he held dear was gone.

Now there was only one thing to do.

Griffith slumped down to his knees and broke down crying.

"My fault! It's all my fault!" he wailed.

* * *

What none of the noble dragons knew at the time was that Spike actually hadn't landed in the chasm.

By pure luck he had fallen into a long ice cave that acted as a slide, it broke his fall with almost no further damage and carried his unconcious form further down the mountain. Eventually spitting him out at the bottom, causing the baby dragon to fall into the snow and roll a few more yards before stopping right at the outer edge of a certain empire located in the frozen north, one that had always welcomed him with open arms whenever he visited and boy did he need those warm arms now.

A few hours passed, Spike just laid there prone, face down in the snow; when a crystal guard passed by, making his usual rounds. He gave the baby dragon a brief glance as he flew down the path before he stopped and did a double take to make sure his eyes weren't deceiving him. He let out a gasp and rushed over to Spike's limp body, quickly lifting him out of the snow and feeling for a pulse while trying to ignore the fact that he was given the opportunity to hold Spike the brave and glorious in his own two hooves.

The guard let out a sigh of relief as he felt the throb of the dragon's neck signaling a pulse, he was still alive. Throwing the baby up onto his back he started flying back to the crystal castle as fast as wings could carry him. The blood leaking out of Spike's forehead made it painfully obvious that the baby dragon needed serious medical attention and fast. He could have simply taken him to a hospital but rabid fans would have broken down the door trying to get to him injuries or not, he needed to take him to a secure location to rest.

Flying in through an open window in the crystal palace, the guard took a moment to get his bearings before darting off towards the medical wing.

The royal doctor jumped when the door to his office slammed open, he was about to scold the guard for bursting into the room in such a way; only to freeze up when he saw Spike the brave and glorious lying on the crystal pony's back completely unconscious.

"I found him on the outskirts on my usual rounds! Please tell me you can do something!" the guard said.

The doctor quickly lifted Spike off the guard pony and gently laid him down on the examination table, "alert Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor of this new development immediately. I will stay here and make sure Spike the brave and glorious is well taken care of."

The guard gave a salute to the medic and rushed down in the direction of the throne room.

A few minutes later, right as he was finishing up the bandage wrapped around spike's head, the door flew off its hinges.

"Can you all please stop bursting in- PRINCESS CADENCE!" the doctor bowed to his princess.

She barely paid him any mind, her focus was entirely on her adopted cousin lying flat on the table.

"Is he going to be alright doctor? I heard what happened."

"I looked him over, apart from a minor concussion and very slight frostbite he is in near perfect health." the doc explained

"Good. bring him to one of the guest rooms to rest, I'll dispatch a few of the crystal guards to keep watch on him." replied Cadence

"Yes princess. Although I can't help but wonder why Spike the brave and glorious would be lying on the outer edges of the crystal empire unconscious."

"I'm not sure. But I do know somepony who can, I've got a few calls to make." with that the princess of love walked off, only to stop abruptly "oh and one more thing. Try to refrain from telling the rest of the kingdom about this, you know how my subjects feel about Spike"

"As you wish." said the doctor as he carried Spike off.

* * *

"IT'S ALL MY FAAAAUUULLTT!" wailed Twilight.

If one were to stand several miles away from the Friendship Castle, they would have been treated to a cacophony of wails emanating from the elements of harmony over their friend who was presumed dead. The cries only got louder the closer one got to the crystal structure.

Nearly everypony who was there at ground zero of the airship's destruction had searched the wreckage for bodies, something, anything to bury but found nothing which also meant there were no chances for a resurrection spell or anything similar (not that they would have attempted to do so.). All hope was gone, they had lost the war. It was all over for but for the crying.

Ember had quickly rushed back when she heard the explosion, when she got word of what had just occurred she lashed out; blaming Twilight and her friends for killing the poor dragon and vowing revenge on Equestria for what they did, but if you looked a little closer one could see she was on the verge of breaking down in a fit of sadness. Thorax had a similar reaction, the minute that airship went down with Spike inside, it felt like every ounce of life force had left his body all at once; he didn't feel sad or angry, just numb from the lost of a friend. He said that he would have to think about the changeling's future with Equestria after today's events and it wasn't looking good for the ponies.

the princesses were similarly broken up, only they were much better at hiding it, they had to be; they couldn't show any weakness as leaders, not in this situation. Celestia instructed the royal guards to begin cleanup on the wreck and the castle, once that was accomplished the princess of the sun returned home and retired to her chambers, where she shoved her face in a pillow and started to weakly sob. Luna mirroring her actions a few rooms over.

As for the element bearers, they were all sobbing their eyes out over Spike's death at their hands. True they had never intended to kill him but that's how the cards played out and now they had to live with the consequences.

Twilight clung to a crying Fluttershy. Both of their coats wet with each other's tears.

Rainbow dash had her face pressed on the table in a vain effort to silence her moans of agony, slamming her hooves against the table in self-hatred.

Applejack was trying and failing to hold back tears as she comforted a distraught Rarity.

And poor Pinkie Pie had moved on to stage four of grief, depression, and tears were coming out of her eyes like they were lawn sprinklers.

The only one present in the room who wasn't crying was Starlight, who stood in the doorway looking over her friends with guilt.

'No Twilight. It's my fault, you were right. I should have helped.' thought Starlight

She wasn't sure where she had went wrong? Was it where she refused to accompany Twilight into the forest or to Baltimare? was it where she showed Ember and Thorax the letter? was it when she failed to recognize an obvious threat to Equestria because of some deep-seated psychological obsession in seeing the best in everypony? Or was it last month when she saw Spike was acting odd and didn't say anything? In any case, Spike was dead because of her lack of action. If she was there, if she had stood behind her friends things might be a little different right now. But having destroyed the time spell, she couldn't change the past; right now all she could do was act like the 'mom' once again and be there for her mourning friends; possibly fill the void Spike will leave behind in their lives to the best of her abilities.

Her deep contemplation was cut short when she heard a phone ringing in Twilight's room, her ears perking up and head snapping towards the direction of the sound.

Taking one last look at her friends, Starlight walked off to answer it. She swore if this was a telemarketer that phone was going out the window.

"Hello?" she said, answering the call.

"Oh, hi Cadence. What's going on?...yes she's here….no I don't think she can come to the phone right now….sure I can pass on a message….WHAT?!"

Starlight couldn't believe the news that the princess of love had just told her.

"YOU'VE GOT WHO RESTING WHERE?! ARE YOU SURE IT'S HIM? CADENCE IF IT'S SOMETHING LIKE THIS YOU'D BETTER BE ABSOLUTELY SURE…..THAT'S GREAT! NO NO WE'LL COME TO YOU, I'LL TELL TWILIGHT. THANK YOU SO MUCH, GOODBYE!"

Starlight Glimmer slammed down the receiver and ran back towards the map room as fast as her legs could carry her.

"TWILIGHT TWILIGHT!" Starlight shouted as she burst into the room and ripped the princess away from the animal lover "you'll never guess who I just got off the phone with."

Twilight sniffled and wiped the tears out of her eyes.

"W-who?" she weakly asked.

"It was Cadence, she said she found Spike just outside of the Crystal Empire….he's still alive Twilight."

The sobbing of the mane six stopped faster than Soaring through a Wonderbolt course, it was almost like a switch had been flipped.

"W-what?" Twilight sputtered in disbelief

"I said Spike's still alive and he's in the Crystal Empire. He must have escaped from the crash somehow."

Joy and life soon returned to Twilight's eyes and she squealed like a schoolfilly "HE'S ALIVE HE'S ALIVE! SPIKE'S ALIVE!" she chorused as she jumped around the table only to come to a sudden stop.

"Wait if he's in the Crystal Empire...then those noble dragon's might not be with him anymore! They might not know where he is!"

"Well what are we waiting for then? Let's go get Spike back!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash, rushing out of the room as the rest of the group quickly followed after her, Starlight Glimmer included.

'Okay no more mistakes, I'm going to do the right thing this time, I'm going to do what's right for Spike' Starlight thought to herself.


	13. Endgame part 1

Spike's head throbbed in pain through the darkness. It felt like somepony had taken a sledgehammer to his head, this was almost as bad as the aftermath of that apple cider bender he went on last year.

Spike was in a bed, he could gather that much from the limited amount of information that his brain could process at the moment...how long had he been out?

Prying his eyes open, the baby dragon surveyed his overall surroundings; he was in a rather elegant looking room made out of crystal with him sitting in the equally elegant bed.

It wasn't his room in the friendship castle so by process of elimination that meant he must have ended up in the Crystal Empire but…

How did he get here?

The last thing he remembered was….odd, there was some kind of haze covering the last few weeks that was covering everything.

Spike pressed his hands to his temples to try and sooth his major headache, only to grow confused when he felt cloth instead of scales. The baby dragon stumbled over to the vanity and saw that he had a medical bandage wrapped around his head, the bandage slightly reddened around his forehead from blood.

Spike touched a claw to it and then everything rushed back like a river bursting from a broken dam: leaving Ponyville, The Castle of Two Sisters, the Baltimare incident, the fight in Appleloosa, breaking his friends out of Canterlot, getting shot out of the sky, falling off a cliff in the Frozen North, and then everything going black..

"I must have landed somewhere near the Crystal Empire after the fall, the crystal guard must have taken me in. But if I'm here then that means-" a worried gasp caught Spike's attention and he looked over to see a female unicorn crystal pony in a nurse's uniform with an expression of great concern.

"Oh dear! You shouldn't be out of bed in your condition! You need as much rest as possible!" said mare, picking him up in her magic and gently lowering him back into the bed.

"I'm fine." said Spike as he thrashed in the unicorn's grip, but his protests fell on deaf ears.

"Spike the brave and glorious, you may be a hero to all of us but you still need rest." said the unicorn "now I will be back in a few minutes with some nice hot soup for you. Don't go anywhere."

Spike huffed in frustration as he fell back down on the bed "great. I'm being babied again. Like always. The Noble Dragon's probably think I'm dead too...which means I'll probably never get to see the Vlemm Enclave or my parents." tears began to well up in Spike's eyes

"It's not fair…I finally had somewhere I could belong, truly belong. And Twilight took it away from me! Why couldn't she have just left me alone? I would have come back eventually, it's not like they wouldn't have seen me ever again. Why can't I just have what I want for a change?"

"Because what you want isn't always what you need." said a familiar voice.

Spike sat back up and was shocked to see Starlight standing there with a piping hot bowl of gem soup in her hoof.

"Starlight? What are you...how long have you been standing there?" asked Spike

"Long enough." said the unicorn, handing Spike the bowl. "Here, you must be starved."

Spike looked down at the stew, a mix of rubies and emeralds floating in the orange mix, it did smell pretty good. He took a small sip, before quickly becoming addicted to the flavor and greedily scarfing down the entire bowl.

"Thanks Starlight" Spike said, wiping away the soup dribbling of his chin "I haven't eat since yesterday and- wait….they're here aren't they?"

"Who?"

"Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash. You came with them didn't you?" Spike deadpanned.

"Well...yeah, they did. They hopped the first train here when they found out you were still alive." Starlight said

Spike put a hand to his forehead and groaned "they are the last ponies I want to see right now!"

"But Spike, they just care about you!" Starlight protested.

"I know that! Don't think for a second that I don't! Did any of you actually read what my letter said or did you all just immediately panic when I was gone?"

Starlight fiddled with her hooves "well now that you mention it, they really didn't seem to care about what it said, they just wanted to get you back. I did read it though, that's why I never came after you."

"Then why are you doing it now? I know you didn't come here just to make sure I was okay after I hit my head." said Spike

"How did that happen anyway?" asked Starlight.

"Don't change the subject Starlight."

"Well spike, I started to feel guilty. If I had been with them in Baltimare or Appleloosa or Canterlot then maybe things wouldn't have played out the way they did, I felt like by taking your letter seriously that I had actually ended up causing more harm than good. I know you're not a baby, well not on the inside, and I should respect your decisions but when those decisions don't seem to be the right ones, that's when I should get involved." explained Twilight's protege.

"Well you should know that I didn't want any of this either." said Spike "I left because I wanted to become stronger so I could protect all of you, so I could have a family for once, that's why I looked the other way for so long, 'the ends would justify the means'. But as things spun out of control I realized that I was actually hurting all the creatures I cared about because I refused to do anything; but by then it was too late, we had gone too far and there was no turning back. I hate all that we've had to do up until this point but we didn't have plenty of options, by being so relentless the noble dragons had to resort to drastic measures to keep me safe."

"That doesn't excuse what they've done."

"I know it doesn't, but all of it has only been because they've got so much riding on me right now, because they care about me a lot." replied Spike

"Wait what do you mean they've got a lot riding on you?" asked Starlight.

Spike quickly hopped out of bed and cracked open the door ever so slightly to make sure nopony was listening in; seeing an empty hallway, spike shut the door and locked it.

Turning back towards Starlight, the baby dragon said "you might want to sit down for this, it's actually pretty big."

* * *

Griffith stomped through the snow at the base of the mountain, having lost sight of the rest of his allies hours ago.

At first sign of daylight the next morning all the Paragons, Saphria and Yam included as they had recovered from their injuries and were brought up to speed on current events, had organized themselves into search parties to scour the mountain for any trace of Artair and give him medical attention if necessary. He had convinced the others to let himself strike out on his own since he'd be able to cover twice as much ground with a tracking device he had built overnight.

But that was a lie, the device in question was nothing more than a broken father box duct taped to a door handle. The truth was he never intended to look for Artair in the first place, if he took into account the force of Artair's fall and combined in with the bitter cold snow and his likely head injury then his older brother was likely already dead; Griffith couldn't handle digging up his brother's frozen corpse after all he's done so far.

The guilt on his conscious was crushing him body and soul, he had cut ties with the only thing he had left in the world right now and then sent him to his death by pushing him away in anger. To make things worse he has indirectly doomed millions of innocent creatures, including that of his own clan, to a slow and painful death when the prophecy came to fruition with no hero to stop armageddon. But worse of all he had lashed out at his family, the group of people who would love and care about him unconditionally until the day they died, and he had gone back on that unspoken promise over things that, in hindsight, would have been easily replaceable.

Suicide wasn't an option, killing himself would only bring his parents further grief by losing both of their children in such a tragic way, so there was only one honorable path he could take to pay for his mistakes: self-exile. Griffith would disappear into obscurity, living in the shadows for the remainder of his days, drifting from place to place like the lost soul he now was.

He couldn't tell his friends, they wouldn't understand, try to make him stay with them but he couldn't allow them too; they deserved a friend much better than him and so did the Vlemm Enclave. Not that it mattered much anyway, in a few years everybody would be dead anyways and it would all be his fault.

Right now his currently plan was to get to the bottom of the mountain and then figure things out from there; he couldn't go to Everfree, too close to civilization and he'd never be able to hack it in the forbidden jungle, maybe the Badlands would be his best bet, plenty of places to hide and enough abandoned scrap to build all the supplies he would need, then again he could always just live at sea….

His train of thought came to a screeching halt when he passed by a large city that had seemed to spring up out of nowhere, an oasis of warmth in the otherwise frozen landscape. It was glorious, the entire place was made of crystal that glistened in the morning sunlight and spanned for what seemed like eternity, in the center was a magnificent castle of pure diamond that rivaled even Fafnir's keep back on the Vlemm Enclave.

Griffith knew that despite the overall awe-inspiring appearance of the city, he should have kept moving and focus on his self-inflicted punishment but found himself oddly drawn to the location, as if something was willing him there. His feet turned and began to move almost on their own, bringing him in the direction of the crystalized city.

'What is it about this place? I feel like I want to be here, like I need to. But why?' Griffith thought to himself.

He only had made it about two blocks in before being spotted by one of the guards, impressive considering how much he stood out amongst the crystal ponies.

"Halt, state your business." said one of them, flying down in front of the dragon to block his path.

"I-I don't know, something about this city fills me with a sense of deep longing." Griffith explained almost breathlessly.

The second guard squinted at Griffith, studying his features, before his eyes widened in realization.

"Wait a second, this is one of the dragons Princess Twilight told us to keep a look out for!"

Grififth sighed, of course Princess Twilight would have put out a notice for him and the other paragons, they had done a lot of awful stuff after all. Griffith could have fought them, could have run away from this place, but what would have been the point? He had nothing left, no friends, no family, no gadgets, nothing but his freedom and honestly he didn't even deserve that.

So he did the only thing he could do, to the absolute surprise of both of the crystal guards, Griffith got down onto his knees in front of them and held up his only remaining arm in a show of submission.

"Screw it, just do whatever you want to me I don't care anymore." said the mechanic with utter defeat in his tone "I won't resist."

"Wait is this some sort of trick?" asked the crystal guard.

"This is no trick, you ponies have taken everything I have left so there's no more reasons for me to fight, I give up." replied Griffith.

The guards looked at each other, trying to figure out if this dragon was lying or not but he seemed pretty sincere, sad almost.

The first guard stepped forward and forced Griffith's arm behind his back, lifting him to his feet and placing handcuffs on him with one loop being clasped around his belt.

"Let's take him to Princess Twilight, she'll know what to do with him." said the guard as they started leading Griffith through the streets of the Crystal Empire.

'I deserve this' Griffith thought to himself 'this is my penance.'

* * *

"And that's why they've been trying so hard to get me to the Vlemm Enclave, I'm their destined savior Starlight, whether we like it or not." Spike finished.

Starlight just sat there in silence, her mind was doing complete backflips as it was nearly torn in half by her conflicting feelings.

Sure the Noble Dragons were by no means perfect angels, they had done a lot of awful things over the past few weeks and caused a lot of damage; but after hearing what they had to lose, what Spike was really worth to them, it all made sense why the acted so rashley, but there was still something that didn't make sense to her.

"So why couldn't they just have told us? If we knew that you meant so much to them we would have let you go." Said Starlight

"Starlight, I would expect you of all ponies to understand how stubborn Twilight can be. She would have fought tooth and nail to keep me from leaving, using every underhanded tactic she could to undermine the Noble Dragons; the rest of her friends would have done the same. They did it during the dragon migration, they did it during the gauntlet of fire, they would have done it now." Said Spike "all because they think I'm a baby, no matter what I do I'll always just be the sidekick, the little brother of the group, the tagalong to their adventures. I had a chance to become something more than a weak baby dragon, to become a hero all my own, to step out of your shadows and to stand by your side in the light. Now it's ruined, I hope you're all happy, at least nopony else is going to get hurt anymore."

Spike looked down dejectedly.

Starlight paused for a moment, here she was to try and convince Spike that what he and his friends had been doing was wrong only to find that he had been filled to the brim with regret.

"You really wanted to go with them didn't you?" said Starlight

"More than anything."

"Even if it meant leaving us?"

Spike hesitated "well...yeah, don't get me wrong. You guys are almost like family to me, we've been together through thick and thin but….the chance to have a REAL family, one that would love and cherish me in a way you guys just can't, that's something I wouldn't pass up for anything in the world."

Starlight gave a tired smile in response "well if it really means that much to you….then I'll try my best to convince the girls to let you go."

Spike looked back up at the unicorn "but what if the Noble Dragons think I'm dead?"

"If they care as much about you as you say they do then they're probably still looking for you as we speak."

Spike chuckled "well then I guess it's only fair that I convince them to not fight you guys, if and when they show up."

"Sounds like a deal" replied Starlight, shaking Spike's claw with her hoof.

"You know you would have made a great school counselor." said Spike

"What?"

"I'm serious, you always know what to say. How to break down ponies' problems into manageable sizes, talk ponies down from crisis. You probably could have gotten your cutie mark in it."

"Pfft, yeah right." said Starlight "the day I become a school counselor is the day I eat one of my kites"

"I'll hold you to that." Spike said in a joking tone "by the way I was wondering, why were you the only one to come in here? I thought the rest of the girls would have stormed in right away."

"Oh that. Well when we got here Cadence said you were still out cold and shouldn't be disturbed, so while everypony else was sitting around waiting for one of the servants to tell us you were awake I started wandering around to keep myself occupied, I haven't gotten a chance to really take a tour of the place since I was too busy trying to save the Crystal Empire last time I was here. By pure luck I ran into a nurse pony who was bringing you hot soup and I insisted on delivering it to you so I could be the first one to talk to you, I figured that it would be better for a pony like me to talk to you one on one instead of being completely swarmed by the other girls." explained Starlight. "Speaking of which, I wonder if that nurse pony has told them yet?"

Right at that very moment, a thundering sound of multiple hooves thumping against the crystal floors started to resonate from down the hall and was quickly growing louder.

"You had to say it didn't you?" Spike said.

The door was literally knocked off it's hinges as the Mane Six stampeded into the room, shoving Starlight away from the bed rather rudely as they huddled around Spike.

"Spikey Wikey! You're okay!"

"Don't ever scare us like that again squirt!"

"Oh it's so wonderful to have you back!"

The Elements of Harmony quickly drowned each other out in a cacophony of joyous tears and comments of relief at having Spike back safe and sound.

However the baby dragon wasn't nearly as pleased as the rest of them were about recent developments.

"Alright, alright I know you're all happy to see me again but-"

Twilight never gave the baby dragon a chance to finish, she lunged towards Spike and wrapped him in a tight hug.

"Oh Spike, I promise I'll never let anything like this happen ever again!" Twilight said through sobs "I'll see if I can convince Celetia to give you your own royal guard battalion, to protect you if something like this happens again!"

"Twilight I-"

"Don't worry spike, I know what you're about to say….and I will personally make sure that all of those 'Noble Dragons' are hunted down, they need to pay for what they did to us, to you!" said Twilight.

"But twilight-"

"And when we get home you can have the whole week off, the whole month if you want! Starlight can take care of all your duties!"

"Wait what?! Don't I get a say in this?!" said Starlight

"TWILIGHT LISTEN!" Spike shouted, but even that wasn't enough to get their attention as they continued to ignore his attempts at protest as they all babbled about the various things they would do for him once they arrived back in Ponyville.

Throwing himself against the pillow when Twilight released him from the hug, Spike let out a frustrated sigh; this is exactly why he left in the first place, he kept getting babied by everypony, acting like he was a child beneath them, never seeing him as a creature that was equal to them, and if it wasn't that it was almost like he was the designated punching bag. He had a chance, finally an opportunity to change that but of course it had to be taken away from him, like a lot of things.

'Well it was nice while it lasted' thought Spike, mulling over the last few weeks 'at least nopony else is going to get hurt because of me.'

The whole reunion was broken apart when a crystal guard pony came galloping into the room through the door frame "Princess Twilight, the crystal guard has requested your presence in the main lobby, along with all of your friends, immediately"

"What? Why?" asked Twilight

"Princess, we've captured one of the Noble Dragons."

That certainly got the girls attention.

"Y-ya found one of them?!" sputtered applejack

"More like he found us, based on the reports he walked right into the Crystal Empire and surrendered almost immediately." the guard explained. "No fight left in him at all."

"He's probably trying to trick us again like last time, whatever you do don't let your guard down." said Twilight before addressing the rest of her friends "Starlight you stay here and keep watch over Spike while the rest of us question the prisoner. We can't risk them getting the drop on us again"

With that, The Elements of Harmony cleared out of the room; leaving behind a baby dragon and a former villain.

"No." Spike said in disbelief "that isn't possible, the Noble Dragons would never….it's not over is it?"

Spike turned to Starlight.

"They're going to do something stupid aren't they? More creatures are going to end up hurt because of me!" Spike shouted.

"I don't know Spike" replied Starlight "all we can do now is hope that everything works out."

* * *

When the Mane Six walked into the main lobby of the crystal castle, they had expected to see a Noble Dragon in a straightjacket, chained up from head to toe, being held down by at least seven guards.

What they ended up getting was a Noble Dragon sitting on his knees, missing an arm, and the only restraints on him were a set of handcuffs around his remaining limb. The guard was right, there wasn't any fight left in him at all; in fact the only acknowledgement he gave to their entrance was a brief glance before his gaze turned back to the floor.

"You!" shouted Rainbow Dash, making Griffith flinch, "You've got a lot of nerve showing up here after what you've done!"

The tinkerer remained silent, avoiding eye contact with his captors, maintaining his defeated pose.

"What? No comeback, no cocky reply?" said Rainbow Dash, jamming her muzzle into Griffith's face. "Come on, I thought you were some tough 'Noble Dragon'."

Griffith still didn't give a response, not a single peep.

Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes "are you trying to pull something? Huh? Dragon mind trick or-"

"Please, shut up." said Griffith, his tone blank and depressed. "Just do whatever you're gonna do and get it over with."

The mares were taken aback by his comment, there was no rebellion, no cocky demeanor, no trace of his previous attitude in his voice, it was just a cold emptiness.

Twilight was the next one to approach him "you actually came to surrender?"

"No, I came to atone for the sins I've committed." Griffith replied "and no I'm not referring to what I've done to any of you. Sure I've felt a little guilty for causing so much trouble but it was always for good reason; no, what I'm paying for is much worse than any of that."

"Dare I ask?"

Griffith looked up at the princess with a glare "you really wanna know? Fine, I've got nothing left to lose anyway. After you caused me to lose my arm and my ship, two inventions that were extremely precious to me, I was very upset and turned into a powder keg ready to blow; unfortunately Artair ended up being the one to light the fuse, I said some things to him I regretted, caused him to walk off from the group with Dylan, when Dylan returned he informed everybody that Artair had fallen off a cliff face and was lost in the snow, we couldn't search for him because of the storm and by now I am almost certain he's perished. So not only did I indirectly snuff out the Noble Dragon clan's last hope for survival but I cast my older brother out when he needed me the most."

The gagetter dragon started to cry "my parents would disown me, the clan would rip me apart, I've got nowhere to go and nothing and nobody left. So the only honorable thing to do is a self-imposed exile, as for you ponies you can sentence me to whatever punishment you see fit, I deserve it."

"But Spike isn't dead" said Pinkie Pie "he's right up-" the party pony was silenced by Rarity clamping a hoof over her mouth, but if Griffith's wide-eyed expression was anything to go by she wasn't fast enough.

"What? What did you just say?" asked Griffith.

"Nothin!" said Applejack, eyes looking everywhere but at the dragon "Pinkie Pie is just sayin the random ol' stuff she always says."

"No, no I know random sayings and that was not a random saying…" the gears in Griffith's head slowly began to turn as the Mane Six started exchanging nervous glances.

"He's….he's not dead?" asked Griffith hopefully.

Twilight struggled to think up a reply, a lie, any sort of fabrication that would keep Griffith from finding out the truth.

"He's here isn't he?" said Griffith.

"N-no…" Twilight said shakily.

"DON'T LIE TO ME!" shouted Griffith, quickly lifting himself to his feet to tower over the ponies "IS HE HERE OR NOT?!"

Twilight could only look up in slight fear at the dragon which was more than enough to confirm his suspicions.

"So he is….let me see him"

"What?" asked Twilight.

"I said let me see him." said Griffith.

"Why? Why should we let you anywhere near him after what you've done?!" said Fluttershy, flying up to meet griffith on eye level with her infamous 'stare'.

"He's my brother, one who I've waited almost my whole life to meet, and if there's one thing that I hold more dear than my gadgets it's my family. I need to see him to know he's okay, so I can apologize to him for being a horrible brother recently." said Griffith.

"And how do we know this isn't just some kind of trick to sneak him out to the rest of your friends?" said Rainbow Dash

"They don't even know I'm here. Please I'm begging you here, just let me see my brother so I can get a piece of mind and clear my conscious, you can be in the room the whole time if you want, have the royal guard watching my every move, even throw me in a dungeon when we're done; all I ask is to have a talk with my brother one last time." Griffith pleaded.

Twilight searched his face for deception, any sign that he was lying to them but she couldn't find a single hit on malicious intent; Griffith really was just a dragon worried about the health and safety of his only brother and she could see that clear as day.

"You really do care about him don't you?" said Twilight.

"I would do anything for my brother, I'd gladly die if it meant keeping him safe." said Griffith "wouldn't you do the same for your family?"

That was what finally convinced Twilight, not just what he said but the utmost seriousness and force that his words held within his voice; she had held the same air about her whenever Shining Armor was in trouble after all.

Twilight mulled it over in her head for a few more moments, she had to be absolutely sure after all, but she finally came to a decision.

"Alright you can….you can see Spike." Said the princess of friendship

"WHAT?!" Shouted the rest of Twilight's friends.

"Really?!" Said a starry-eyed Griffith

"Under one condition: we get to be in the room the whole time just to be sure you don't try anything crazy."

"Deal, now where's big bro?" Griffith said.

Before Twilight could show him the way, Applejack pulled her to the side.

"Twilight, are we really gonna let this fella get close to Spike?" whispered the farmer pony

"Look I know it's risky but he seemed to be really worried about Spike, besides we've got him completely outnumbered and surrounded. He won't be able to sneak away this time."

"Alright, if ya say so." said Applejack "but ah'm keepin an eye on him."

* * *

Back upstairs, Spike was gnawing the tips of the claws in worry to the point where they started to go red. One of his dragon friends was probably being tortured by his pony friends right now and there wasn't a thing he could do about it; if he tried he'd just be dismissed by everypony.

"Oh man, oh geez, oh Celestia. I don't even want to think about what they're doing to them right now." said Spike as he paced back and forth across the room.

"Spike don't you think you might be overreacting just a bit, Twilight doesn't really seem like the torture type, even in this case." said Starlight

"Then you've never seen her in full 'big sis' mode, she's probably ripping out their claws as we speak, tying their tail into knots, and making them listen to Pinkie Pie play the bagpipes." Spike ranted "I wonder who got caught; if it was Saphria or Dylan then they could probably take it but if it was Yam…." spike shuddered.

A knock at the empty doorframe did little to capture Spike's attention, despite Starlight's eyes widening to the size of a full moon when she saw who was standing there.

"If this is about how you're punishing one of my friends I don't want to hear a word of it" Spike said dismissively.

"Try again bro"

Spike whipped his head back around so quickly it might as well have snapped right off of his neck; standing in the doorway was his younger brother Griffith, looking no far worse for wear than when he last saw him.

"Hey." said Griffith.

Spike took a few steps back towards the bed, the scars left behind by the memories of his brother's hurtful comments were still fresh.

"Wha-what are you doing here?" said Spike "h-how did you get here?"

"Not important Artair, right now I need to say something to you that is important" Griffith sucked in a deep breath "I'm sorry."

"Huh?"

"I'm sorry for everything I said to you yesterday, I acted like a horrible monster of a little brother and left you out in the cold when you needed me more than ever, I was just mad over my recent losses and lashed out and I've regretted it ever since, dad would have kicked my butt for saying stuff like that to family. So if you don't want to forgive me that's fine, I wouldn't forgive me either, I just wanted to let you know that if I could take back every word I said I would in a heartbeat." said Griffith, trying to hold back his own tears.

Spike just stood there, staring at his brother in slight disbelief.

"Well that's that then. I'd better get going, these guys have got a nice warm cell waiting for me in the dungeons and I don't want to keep em' waiting." Said Griffith, but as he turned to leave he felt a pair of claws grab ahold of his remaining hand and he looked down to see his older brother standing there.

"No, please don't go" Said Spike "Griffith I forgive you for saying those things to me but if you leave me here and now I won't forgive you for that."

Griffith smiled "okay big bro, I'll stay."

Spike jumped up and wrapped his younger brother into a hug, a hug Griffith gladly returned with gusto, a hug that cleared up any suspicions the rest of the Mane Six might have had about Griffith's intentions.

Seeing the two embrace in a way that only two close family members could, a love that simply couldn't be faked by even the best actors in the world, The Elements of Harmony knew that Griffith wasn't hiding anything from them at all, he just wanted to be with his brother.

It was at that moment that Griffith noticed the unfamiliar mare sitting in the corner with her mouth wide open like a fish.

Griffith broke the hug to address her "hey who are you? I don't remember seeing you with the rest of the ponies that have been following us."

Regaining her composure, Starlight hopped out of her chair and approached the green dragon "Starlight Glimmer, I'm the only one here who didn't want to go after Spike."

"Why?"

"Because I actually respect my friend's decisions." said Starlight shooting a glare past Griffith towards Twilight. "And you are?"

"Griffith, Artair's younger brother, a member of the Vlemm Enclave royal family, and it's greatest inventor" said Griffith holding out his hand for a shake "nice to meet ya."

Starlight smiled as she placed her hoof in his claw.

"Hey Griffith, can we talk?" said Spike, before turning to address the rest of his friends " **alone?** "

The Mane Six wanted to protest but realized that they really didn't have much of an argument to make and relented.

"We'll be right out in the hall Spike, if you need anything" said Twilight before walking away with the others.

Starlight moved to join them but Spike grabbed her shoulder to stop her "no, you can stay for this. I trust you Starlight."

In a few moments, the trio had settled themselves with Spike sitting next to his brother on the bed and Starlight having pulled up a chair in front of them.

"So how did you find me anyways?" asked Spike

"Funny thing, I didn't really find you so much as I stumbled upon you. Honestly I thought you were dead." said Griffith

"Really?"

"Well yeah, a free fall from that height coupled with what was likely a concussion at the very least" said Griffith, gently running his claws across the bandages around Spike's head "and the fact that you were left in sub-zero temperatures during a snowstorm overnight would have killed even the toughest of dragons. But that's beside the point, having lost my only brother on top of everything else meant I didn't have a lot left to live for so I was planning on exiling myself until the day I died, but then I was drawn to this place for some unexplained reason and handed myself over to the pony guards so they could dish out the punishment I deserved for hurting you the way I did and when I was approached by your pony friends, they let it slip that you were not only alive but were here too so I begged to see you and here we are." said Griffith

"Wow" said Spike

"Yeah wow, by the way" said Griffith, looking at Starlight "I can't quite put my finger on it but there's something a bit off about you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Starlight

"I'm not exactly sure, but for some reason you just strike me as the type of pony who would brainwash an entire village into a flawed way of thinking and deprive them of the one thing that makes them special because you were too stubborn to see things from a different perspective. But that probably sounds crazy right?" said Griffith

Starlight's jaw nearly hit the floor alongside Spike's "that is...actually scarily accurate."

"Forget it." said Griffith waving his hand dismissively "I don't even want to know."

"So where do we go from here?" said Spike

Griffith let out an unsure huff "I have no clue, the ship is gone, the rest of the Paragons don't know where we are, and I seriously doubt there is anything that we can say that would convince your pony friends to just let us go. At this point we might just have to throw in the towel."

"What about the truth?" suggested Starlight

"What?"

"The truth, you can tell them the truth about what's going on and why you need spike so badly; they'd understand, I know I do." said Twilight's student.

Griffith turned towards his brother "you told her?!"

"Give me a break; I thought it was all over! But starlight does have a point, maybe if we're upfront and honest about this whole thing, the girls might be willing to let me go." said Spike. "Do you have a better idea?"

"Well...no, no I don't...but even if I wanted to tell the truth I couldn't, mom and dad are very strict about the whole 'remaining in hiding' deal that the Noble Dragons have."

"Even if it meant that they couldn't see their son?" questioned Starlight.

Griffith pursed his lips "good point, now if only I had a way to…." Griffith paused as his arm hit a lump on his pants, he patted the area a few times to make sure his mind wasn't playing tricks on him before pulling out a small black box.

"MY EMERGENCY COM LINE!" shouted Griffith "I FORGOT I EVEN HAD THIS ON ME!"

"Can you use it to call our parents?" asked Spike excitedly

"Of course I can, that's the whole point of it being 'for emergencies' big bro!" Griffith said, flipping open the phone and punching in some numbers.

Griffith held it up to the side of his head for a few moments before a voice came onto the other end.

"Hey mom…..yes we're all still alive…...yes I know what happened to the Violet Dawn you can stop worrying…...yeah he's here but that's not why I called you, see we've kind of backed ourselves into a corner here and I need your permission to do something….." said Griffith

* * *

"What do you think they're talking about in there?" asked Fluttershy.

The Mane Six had all piled out into the hallway and walked a bit of a distance so they were slightly out of ear shot from what Spike, his brother, and Starlight were all saying to each other.

"Who knows darling?" said Rarity, sitting down on a crystal bench "but I have to admit that I was touched by how much those two care about each other, especially since they've only known each other for a few short weeks."

"Ah wonder what they've been doing when we weren't goin after em'." said Applejack.

"Beats me, I don't know what Noble Dragons d-" Rainbow Dash was abruptly cut off by a large rock smashing in through a nearby window, causing everypony to jump up in surprise.

"What in celestia's name?!" Said Twilight rushing over to the shattered glass.

A few stories down the Elements of Harmony were met with a very unwelcome sight: Saphria was perched atop the spire of one of the crystal buildings surrounding the crystal castle.

"Hello **princess.** " Hissed Saphria

"You! What are you doing here?" Said the princess of friendship.

"Oh just getting back something that belongs to us: namely Griffith and Artair, hand then over." Said the ninja dragon.

'I knew it!' Twilight thought to herself 'I knew that dragon was up to something! That whole act about wanting to see his brother was probably just a distraction so the Noble Dragons could get into the city.'

"Or what?!" Pinkie pie shouted back.

Saphria could only chuckle and point a thumb over her shoulder.

Looking out towards the horizon the Mane Six uttered a collective gasp.

Snow golems, hundreds of them were scattered across the snowy landscape just outside of the crystal empire. Some smaller than fillies while others were the size of a two story house, but they all looked very angry; at the very front of the army was Yam looking similarly displeased, clearly having risen the army with her own chromatic abilities, being flanked by Dylan, Mia, Crystal, and Connor.

"Or you will learn first hand just how dangerous an ice warrior is in their element!" Boomed Saphria.

Twilight weighed her options: on the one hoof they were clearly outnumbered by the snow army that Yam had created and it was safe to assume that she could create an endless supply of troops, plus she was backed up by all the other Noble Dragons who had beaten them before. But on the other hoof they had two alicorns on their side as well as all of the Crystal Empire who would likely give in their all to defend their savoring, not to mention she could call in Ember, Thorax, or the princesses for back up (assuming they would listen long enough for her to inform them that Spike was still alive) and there was no way she was just going to standby while Spike was taken away from her right when she got him back.

"Do your worst you dragon scum!" Twilight yelled.

Saphria shrugged "your funerals." The dragoness pulled out a war horn and blew into it, it's tune riding on the winds across the landscape.

All at once, the frost golems let out a collective roar and charged towards the city with the Noble Dragons leading them from the front.

"THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE IS UNDER ATTACK! EVERYPONY ARM YOURSELVES AND PREPARE FOR BATTLE!" Shouted Twilight as she flew off into the castle with her friends following close behind.

In just a few short moments, the Crystal Empire was about to bear witness to a battle of epic proportions that has not been seen since the attack of the Umbrum, all for the fate of their savior.


End file.
